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F 139 


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Copy 1 



THE 



TBIUHYIB 



OF 



FOUR- AND- A-HALF STREET. 



i 



NOVEMBER, 1881. 



" Nothing extenuate, 
Nor set down aught in malice." 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

R. BERESFORD, PRINTER, 523 7TH STREET. 
1881. 



The following articles, modified here in some particulars, first appeared in 
The Capital, but the Editor of that paper is in no way responsible for them. 

I hold the District Commissioners, and the clique behind them, responsi- 
ble for the existence of the facts stated, and they are entitled to hold me re- 
sponsible for their grouping and publication. 






C. E. H. 



OTJB COMMISSIONERS. 



A REVIEW, IN CHAPTERS, OF THEIR 

ADMINISTRATION OF DISTRICT AFFAIRS. 



To the Editor of The Capital : 

"An excellent showing" is the heading of a "compar- 
ative statement of cash receipts and expenditures of the 
District of Columbia for the years 1878, 1879, 1880 and 
1881," which appeared in the newspapers July 21, 1881. 

This statement is the defense of Messrs. Dent and Morgan 
to charges brought against them. I propose to state the 
charges, examine the defense and draw a conclusion which 
shall be just to the public and to the Commissioners. 

The Engineer Commissioner Not in Question. 

To avoid repetition of explanations, I state here that no 
specific charge has been made against Major Twining, except 
a too ready assent to the wishes of his colleagues in regard 
to business especially under their charge. He appears to 
enjoy the respect of the people, has been repeatedly compli- 
mented on the floor of Congress, and is of acknowledged 
distinction in his profession. His management of the engi- 
neering operations of the District government is admitted 
to be able. Whenever in this paper, or others to follow, I 
use the word " Commissioners," I mean the Commissioners 
specially charged with the civil afi'airs of the District — 
Messrs. Dent and Morgan. 



36 THE TRIUMVIRS 

I. 

FIRST CHARGE-WANT OF ECONOMY. 

February 2, 1881, on the floor of the House, Mr. Aldrich 
said: 

" They have never recommended, since I have been on the District Com- 
mittee, the cutting down of the salary of a single oflBcer, the abolition of a 
single office, and I believe so long as they retain their positions they never 
will."— 38 Rec, 5. 

Mr. Cobb said : 

"But I have talked with the Commissioners, and they always seem to be 
opposed to any proposition to reduce expenditures, &c. — 38 Rec, 6. 

Mr. Neal said : 

"And when we considered the District appropriation bill last session I was 
assured by one of the Commissioners that they would reduce the expense of 
that government at least twenty-five per cent. There is no reduction in this 
bill whatever." — 38i2ec., 4. 

What is the " excellent showing " on this point? 

The receipts in 1878 were $2,150,000, and in 1881, $3,823,- 
000— an increase of $1,673,000. 

The expenditures in 1878 were $2,247,000, and in 1881, 
$3,733,000— an increase of $1,486,000. 

As the Commissioners plume themselves on adding a 
million and half in three years to the burdens upon the 
National and District treasuries, we must presume they will 
continue to add to them in the same ratio. If permitted, 
they will in another three years run the District expendi- 
tures to almost five and a half millions yearly, and, if they 
hold oflice long enough, they will make the District govern- 
ment the scandal of American politics. 

It is true that in certain particulars there have been 
reductions. Most, if not all of these, have been forced by 
Congress. For instance, the Commissioners were about to 
contract with the Gas Company for several years at $28 per 
annum for each street lamp, when Congress, at the instance 
of the Secretary of the Treasury, stopped them. The com- 
pany subsequently were glad to get the job at $25 a lamp. 
And thus did Congress force the Commissioners to reduce 
expenditures for street gas alone over twelve thousand dol- 
lars yearly. [Four thousand two hundred and thirty-three 



/ 



OF FOUR-AND'A'HALF STREET. 37 

lamps, at a saving of three dollars each yearly, amounts to 
$12,699.] 

But in the health office Dr. Townshend, whose capacity for 
management equals that of his brother, the congressman, 
has seen his annual expenditure rise from $16,686 in 1878 to 
$26,928 in 1881; and the improvement and repair of streets, 
&c., which cost the large sum of $425,760 in 1878, rose in 
two years to the astounding figure of $660,882, 

Under the head of " charities and corrections " the Com- 
missioners show an increase from $88,047 in 1878 to $196,- 
443 in 1881 ; and yet there was not half as much need of 
alms in the latter as in the former year. 

I will stop here to state a little more in detail the facts in 
a single case, by way of illustration of the Commissioners' 

Want of Economy. 

In the early part of 1879 Congress made an appropriation 
of seventy-five thousand dollars to build two school-houses, 
and the Commissioners offered five hundred dollars for the 
best plan. From the plans so obtained the School Board 
selected two, and recommended that one school-house should 
be built on each plan. The Commissioners advertised for 
bids for the erection of buildings on these plans, and 
awarded the contracts ; but, for some reason, then unknown 
to the public, the contractor did not begin work. It sub- 
sequently leaked out that he was held back to enable the 
senior Commissioner to perfect a plan of his own for one or 
both buildings. 

While Mr. Dent was working away at his plan the pros- 
perity "boom" of 1879 swept over the country, sending 
prices of labor and material to a higher figure. As a 
consequence the contractor, who was a poor man, failed, 
and his bondsmen insisted that the failure was not his fault — 
that he could have built the school-houses for the amounts 
agreed upon if he had been permitted to go on with the 
work when the contracts were awarded. The cause of the 
failure, they said, lay at the door of the executive ofiice in 
Columbia Building. 

The Commissioners appear to have acquiesced in this 
view of the case, for thej' released one of the bondsmen, 
and gave up the contract for the Henry Building to make 
room for a contract on the Dent plan ; and they agreed to 



38 THE TRIUMVIRS 

pay the other bondsmaa extra, to go on with the Peabody 
Building — the difterence between the cost of certain mate- 
rials then and at the time the contract was entered into. 
This difference amounted to $3,462.66. So much at least 
the tax-payers have had to pay for the luxury of being ruled 
over by these eminently respectable " old citizens." 

But the $3,462,66 was by no means the total loss, or the 
greatest misfortune of these transactions. They consumed 
the whole of the building season of 1879, thereby postpon- 
ing the erection of these much-needed school-houses to 
another year, and subjecting the District to a loss of about 
seven thousand dollars in rents. Nor is this all. By aban- 
doning the contract for the Henry Building, and entering 
into a new one on the Dent plan after prices had gone up, 
the Commissioners imposed upon the District an increased 
expenditure for an inferior building. "Who would suspect 
that the contract price for the Force Building was over six 
thousand dollars greater than the contract price for the Pea- 
body, or that the actual cost of the Force was nearly two 
thousand five hundred dollars greater than the Peabody, 
extras included? And yet such is the fact. Of course I do 
not include the cost of the fourth story of the Peabody, 
which is not common to the other building. 

There is another view of the case. Whoever passes over 
Massachusetts avenue from Scott's statue to Stewart's castle 
will pass by what people generally take for a brewery. It 
is the house that Dent built in lieu of the Henry Building, 
and is named the "Force School-house." So great a carri- 
cature on architecture is it that the engineer Commissioner 
was once betrayed into the exclamation, " Do plant some 
fast-growing vines to cover the ugliness of this structure !" 
Its outside, however, is the least objectionable part of it. 
The inside is cramped and frittered away to make room for 
six large gossip parlors, and these are so located as to be 
practically inaccessible to parents who may need to confer 
with teachers. 

The ventilating shafts are placed in the most exposed 
positions near the entrance doorways. But I forbear. Is 
it any wonder Congress should have taken away, by posi- 
tive law, from these Commissioners, all authority over the 
plans of school buildings ? 



OF FOUR' AND- A'EALF STREET. 39 

n. 

I come now to the 

SECOND CHARGE-GROSS INCOMPETENCY. 

It is a matter of notoriety that the Representative who 
was in charge of the District appropriation bill last winter 
fipoke in debate of the uselessness of consulting either Major 
Morgan or Mr. Dent about District affairs, alleging that they 
were profoundly ignorant of them and unable to give any 
intelligent information about them. He said also: 

" From him (Major Twining) more than from any other man in this Dis- 
trict I have obtained the information upon which I have acted in the prepara- 
tion of this bill." 

And again : 

"I can say from my own knowledge of the duties that he (Major Twining) 
performs more actual seryice than either of the other two Commissioners.'' 

This is very mild. He might have said more than both, 
and appealed safely to any man who has been unfortunate 
enough to have business to transact at the District offices. 

Of their dawdling way of doing things Mr. Aldrich said : 

"In June, 1879, when the last act was passed for making revisions, the 
Commissioners stated to the committee that the revision could probably be 
completed within three months; that is, by the 1st of October, 1879. They 
have been before Congress or the committee three or four times since for the 
purpose of having the time extended, and making promises that the revision 
should be completed within a few months. They fixed the time in April last; 
they fixed it in July; * * they fixed it in October; they finally fixed it in 
January of this year. * * * I believe, and I think every member of this 
committee will agree with me, that this revision could have been completed in 
six months' time, instead of being extended over three years." 

In their report of February to the House committee on 
the District, the sub-committee, among other damaging 
things, says, that in violation of law " the Commissioners 
intrusted the entire preparation and issue of these draw- 
back certificates to one of their clerks, and allowed them to 
be issued under his signature." 

The same sub-committee finds the Commissioners guilty 
of " inefficiency." 

It is quite impracticable to go over the multitude of illus- 
trations of this charge. I can deal with it only by samples. 

Take first their management of the 



40 THE TRIUMVIRS 

Public Markets. 

The District has owned five of these. The net revenue 
from all these in the last four fiscal years the Commissioners 
show to have averaged annually $5,915.45, a little more than 
$1,000 each. (See, " an excellent showing.") They do not 
mention, however, the important fact that the District ex- 
pended the following amounts in the erection of market 
houses : In 1876, $49,130.52, and in 1877, $10,893.73, mak- 
ing a total of $60,024.25 ; and that the market on the corner 
of K and Twenty-first streets has cost the District in all 
more than $100,000. It is doubful whether the whole net re- 
ceipts from all the District markets is equal to five per cent, 
on the total cost of this one of them ; and if we take the 
whole market business, including expenditures for building 
and repairs, from 1876 to the last fiscal year inclusive, there 
has been a dead loss on it of some forty thousand dollars ! 

It were better policy to let the markets to private parties 
who would pay rent and taxes on them. The Center Market 
Company alone pays the District $14,500 yearly in rent and 
taxes. But Messrs. Dent and Morgan will never get this 
idea into their heads. Like the brook, they run on forever 
in the same channel. Their management of the 

Police and Criminal Court 

business is as bad as that of the markets. Indeed, there is 
no management at all, so far as the public can see. For 
several years the newspapers have pointed out the shocking 
inhumanity of providing no food for a person arrested on 
Saturday afternoon until after his sentence in the Police 
Court on Monday morning. "Whether any of the sufterers 
have died of this two days' starvation I do not know. What 
I do know is, that Major Morgan might absent himself from 
prayer meeting long enough to devise a remedy for a prac- 
tice disgraceful to human nature. Are not these starving 
prisoners fit objects of the charity that scatters so much 
money over the District ? 

"While the population of the District and misdemeanors 
are rapidly increasing, the Police Court cases are decreasing. 
The number stands as follows: In 1875, 4,864 cases; in 
1876, 5,088 cases ; in 1877, 4,537 cases, and in 1880, under 
the present Commissioners, 3,025 cases. (Since Mr. Morgan 



OF FOUR- AND- A-HALF STREET. 41 

ceased to be Major of Police there has been some improve- 
ment in this respect.) 

The excess of fines, &c., over expenditures, was, in 1876^ 
$9,282.70, and in 1877, $7,088.70. 

The excess of expenditures over fines, &c., under the 
present Commissioners, shows a dead loss, as follows : For 
1878, $3,389.16; for 1879, $3,727.81 ; for 1880, $3,895.22 j 
or a total loss in three years of $11,012.19. 

From the profit in 1876 to the loss in 1880, there is a 
chasm of more than thirteen thousand dollars ! ! 

The Police System. 

No one will claim that we have adequate or even tolerable 
police protection at the present time. It is proposed, as 
appears from a bill submitted to the last Congress, to add 
one hundred men to the present force, at a cost of about 
one hundred thousand dollars annually. If such increase 
of force is necessary, it should be granted ; but before that 
is done the necessity should be clearly made out. 

I understand there are now fifty-two mounted men on the 
force, and some forty of these are assigned to duty in the 
cities of Washington and Georgetown, where, experts tell 
me, they are about as useful as an equal number of eques- 
trian statues. A big, fat policeman, mounted on a little, 
lean horse, (no uncommon sight nowadays,) insures pity 
for the horse and safety for the thieves. These men should 
be dismounted and restored to effective patrol duty. The 
amount thus saved in horse hire would pay for eight or ten 
men. Then recall at least twenty men now diverted to 
clerical or other irregular service. By such readjustment, 
there would be restored to effective service about seventy 
men. When this is done, it will be time enough to consider 
whether it is necessary to impose a hundred thousand dollars 
more in taxes to increase this branch of the District service. 

Again, it is provided hy law that all orders and directions 
to the police force shall be made through the Major of 
Police, the executive head of the force. But the Commis- 
sioner in charge of police matters, Mr. Morgan, has set 
aside this law, and habitually assumes to give orders him- 
self direct to all grades of the force. If a lieutenant hap- 
pens to disapprove of an order of the Major of Police, he 



42 THE TRIUMVIRS 

has only to apply personally to Commissioner Morgan, who, 
if he thinks proper, will grant permission to disregard the 
chiefs order. The result any one can see. 

In fact, the utter demoralization of the police is a noto- 
rious fact. It began when Major Morgan was superintendent. 
Under his "goody-goody" treatment, (I have never believed 
the story that the Major carried a supply of candy to give 
policemen — it was not quite so bad as that,) the most meri- 
torious act of a policeman was to tempt some wretched 
etreet-walker, and arrest her ; to threaten with arrest per- 
sons walking quietly over the fields on Sunday, or to steal 
the clothes of some little boy while he was taking a bath in 
the river. But as the judges did not sanction the enticing 
and larceny and Sabbatical methods of the Sunday-school 
superintendent turned detective, the police went all to pieces. 
Between 1876 and 1880, the cases reported by them fell off 
more than two thousand a year. They have been ordered 
not to enforce certain laws, or to enforce them in a certain 
way, or not to enforce them against certain persons, or in 
certain places, until they have become utterly confused as 
to their duties. Things have come to such a pass with them 
that one policeman cannot be trusted alone on a beat at 
night; there must be two. They are assigned beats they 
are not expected to visit ; duties they are not expected to 
<do. Large numbers of them are detailed for clerical work. 
It is said that thirty-four are now detailed on business not 
falling within their proper functions. 

With the present force Major Brock could do something 
for the public protection if his duties were not constantly 
meddled with by a fussy superior, who thinks he ought to 
manage all the fires, regulate each policeman, detect every 
crime and keep everything and everybody in a stew. Be- 
tween Judge Dent, who does nothing he can avoid, and 
Major Morgan, who does everything he ought not to do, 
and always does it wrong, I prefer the Judge. 

Management of Paupers. 

Last winter it was stated on the floor of the House that 
there were in this District 21,935 persons who receive char- 
ity, and that more than 35,474 prescriptions of medicine had 
been made for the poor and paid for by the District. This 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 43 

was on information from the Commissioners. (Rec. 9, Feb. 
1, 1881.) As the whole population of the District is about 
178,000, the statement is in effect that one person in eight is 
a pauper ! 

The statement is preposterous ; utterly so. No man with 
eyes to see or brains to think will accept an absurdity so 
gross. What ! in the capital city of the nation, where sev- 
eral millions are yearly spent for labor, one person in eight 
a pauper ! Rather state the fact as it is, that there are so 
many persons willing to accept the public money from an 
incompetent District government; and that, if Major Mor- 
gan and the professional friends of the poor who have him 
in hand are permitted to handle much longer the charity 
funds of the nation, they will demoralize the self-respect of 
the entire population of the District, and make Washington 
and its workmen more notorious than Naples and its lazza- 
roni. 

It is a burning shame that the capital of this happy coun- 
try is allowed to be overrun with professional beggars; that 
we keep public inns where tramps and vagabonds are fed 
and lodged without charge ; that Washington is allowed to 
become the general rendezvous of dead-beats, monomaniacs 
and professional jail-birds; that a large and central part of 
the city is set apart for the undisturbed development of the 
social evil; that the streets and avenues show more than a 
thousand places for the sale of liquor, and saloons, licensed 
and unlicensed, springs from which flow streams of adulter- 
ated poison to desolate the homes of citizens, and that when 
we complain of all or any of these to the governors set over 
us, and ask that the laws be enforced, we get no answer ex- 
cept that of helpless imbecility — " We can do nothing." 

I assert, without fear of contradiction by any sensible citi- 
zen, that the District charities and institutions for correction 
are as poorly managed as they are in any part of the United 
States; and all because there is not a glimmering of social or 
political science in the mind of either of the Commissioners 
charged with the care of these institutions. It passes belief 
that Mr. Hayes should have expected to find administrative 
ability in two men who had never shown any. Neither the 
being a third-class post-ofiice clerk a quarter of a century 
before, nor ramming piles into the bottom of a canal, nor 



44 TEE TRIUMVIRS 

working a dredging machine, would appear to most Presi- 
dents fitting preparation for municipal administration. 

The newspapers lately reported Major Morgan as off on a 
tour to Baltimore, to study its modes of dealing with the 
seven great curses of modern large cities, and later, as " on 
the limited express for a week's tour among the reformato- 
ries at the North." He might have twenty years for the 
purpose, and at the end of his studies he would he like the 
Duke of Marlborough's baggage mule, which had gone 
through twenty campaigns and understood no more of mil- 
itary matters than when it began. 

The Preparation of Bills for Congress 

is an unavoidable duty of the Commissioners, and has been 
bunglingly performed. 

The " municipal code " prepared under their supervision 
was no code, but a collection of all the ordinances of the 
cities and the levy court, the assembly laws and congres- 
sional statutes passed during the century. The collection 
was made with considerable care by one of the young and 
rising lawyers of the District, and, after having been hacked 
at and tampered with on Four-and-a-half street, was sent up 
to Congress under the name of a " code." Here it was got 
into moderately good shape by heavy work of congressmen, 
and passed the House. Had the Commissioners kept away 
from the Senate, it would doubtless have been still further 
improved and have passed that body also. But this was not 
to be. These officials hung around the Senate committee 
like the wind from Kidwell Bottoms around the White 
House, and with much the same effect. Every provision 
they touched seemed to be struck with malaria. I cite as a 
sample Mr. Dent's amendment to the chapter on public 
schools. He proposed to reduce the number of school 
divisions from seven to four, each division to have at least 
one trustee, and a fifth trustee was to be appointed at large, 
leaving it discretionary with the Commissioners whether to 
appoint the other fourteen trustees or not, and, if appointed, 
to take them from any locality they pleased — all from George- 
town, or all from any other town in the District. 

Bear in mind that Mr. Dent resides in Georgetown, and 
then consider the modesty of his asking Congress to so 



OF FOUR'AND'A-HALF STREET. 45 

arrange the school divisions of the District as to give that 
little suburb and Uniontown, which combined have only 
sixty schools, equal voice in the management of school 
aflairs with the great city of "Washington, having over four 
hundred and sixty schools ! As a pure gerrymander, Mr. 
Dent's amendment takes the medal. (See ex-Trustees' Me- 
morial to Congress.) 

For two winters Congress was flooded with such drivel in 
the form of amendments to the code, until finally the Sen- 
ate, or its committee, got disgusted and tumbled the whole 
thing out at a side window, where it lies to-day, among the 
raw material which vnay hereafter, under happier auspices, 
be taken up, recast and made into law. 

It is safe to say that among all the citizens of the District, 
Messrs. Dent and Morgan are among the least familiar with 
municipal law, and least competent to revise it. I will go 
further, and assert that they have never yet sent a bill to 
Congress which was not full of blunders. 

Take, for instance, the bill passed March 3, 1881, which 
has recently been the subject of several legal opinions. Sec- 
tions 3 and 6 are substantially the work of the Commis- 
sioners, whose object was to get power in regard to certain 
city lots, including the central guard-house lot : First to sell 
them at auction, partly for cash and partly on credit ; second, 
to annul the highest bid, if unperformed, and sell to the 
next bidder; third, to convey the property; fourth to apply 
the proceeds of certain lots to building station-houses, and 
of certain others to building an engine-house. 

All this is simple, but it was too much for these gentlemen. 
They drew a bill, the effect of which is: First, to empower 
them to sell at auction for cash only; second, to nobody but 
the highest bidder — if his bid is annulled, the sale is annulled ; 
third, the power to make a deed is omitted ; fourth, the 
power to buy lots for station-houses is omitted, while that 
to buy a lot for the engine-house is granted; fifth, the pro- 
ceeds of lots mentioned in section 6 are directed to be 
applied to the use named in section 3. But there are two 
uses named in section 3. To which of them, pray, is the 
money to be applied ? 

But I can't dwell on this rather dry topic. Sufiice it to 
say that Messrs. Dent and Morgan have never been able, 



46 THE TRIUMVIRS 

without aid, to draw a bill through the gaps of which Mr. 
Knox cannot drive any one of his wagons at full speed. 

"When Oxenstiern, the great Swedish chancellor, sent his 
son traveling among the courts of Europe, " Go my eon," 
said he, "and see with how little wisdom the world is gov- 
erned." If Oxenstiern were living in this age he would 
send his son direct to this District. 

The Subordinates 

in the District government, owing to the weakness of the 
Commissioners, are the rulers. In the annual reports it is 
they who make suggestions for legislation. Look at page 
11 of the report for 1880. It is the secretary, auditor, col- 
lector, treasurer, health officer, major of police, &c., who 
make the recommendations for legislation, which are trans- 
mitted, without approval or disapproval, by the Commis- 
sioners. If the House committee wishes information about 
assessments, a letter from Mr, Roome is sent up ; if about 
personal taxes, it is Mr. Fish who gives it, and so on to the 
end of the chapter. The Commissioners, knowing nothing, 
defer to subordinates, who know oftentimes more than 
they tell. Indeed, it is not to be denied that the brains of 
the District government are not in the head. No one know- 
ing the parties will say that either Mr. Dent or Mr. Morgan 
equals in ability any one of the following subordinates : 
Tindall, Dodge, Vinson, Cook, Hoxie or Green. The sultan 
is not equal to his viziers. At the District building there 
is no head. The clerks work or not, as the chief in their 
respective rooms may require. Mr. Roome took three years 
to revise assessments instead of six months;* and if he shall 
think it advisable, he will take six years to straighten up 
the old records, if Messrs. Dent and Morgan continue sa 
long in office. They cannot tell whether it ought to take 
him one month or six years, and Roome knows their help- 
lessness. 

I pass now to something more serious than incompetency: 



*It is said in defenso of Mr. Koome that the Commissioners discharged his competent M- 
Bistants lo make room for Eppa Hunton's squad of Virginians; and the wonder is, with such a 
force, not that it took him three years to revise the assessments, but that he got through at all. 

The defense seems to have some force. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 47 

III. 

THIRD CHARGE-DUPLICITY. 

In a sharp correspondence, which my readers will remem- 
ber, Mr. Giltillan, United States Treasurer, made this charge 
in plain terms. The Pastor's Union made it in its published 
statement. The same thing is found against them by the 
sub-committee of the House. Mr. Aldrich's report says : 

" They have disobeyed the requirements of the law, and have set up evasive 
pretexts for that disobedience ; and on the plea of construing the acts of Con- 
gress as measures of relief, they have perverted them from their intent in or- 
der to relieve property-holders from taxes and penalties lawfully due; in all of 
which various acts and omissions they have been guilty of grave dereliction of 
duty, deserving censure." 

That report was presented to the House committee Feb- 
ruary 21, 1881. The honor of the Commissioners required 
immediate action ; but they thought more of safety than 
of honor. Their friend Mr. Hunton, for whom they had 
filled all possible vacancies in District offices with Virgin- 
ians, saved them from trial. Some who did not know them 
thought they would resign. President Hayes did not like to 
turn out the protege of the bankers or a brother Methodist. 
The new Administration had more important matters to at- 
tend to; and before this could be taken up the pistol of the 
assassin saved these trembling men. 

About the High School and Square 446. 

In their report to the Commissioners (Com. Rep., 159,) for 
1880, the trustees of the public schools take it for granted 
that the annual appropriation of $100,000 for common-school 
buildings and sites will be made, and in addition thereto ask 
special attention to the urgent necessity of erecting a high- 
school building. They say: 

" Suitable buildings for this purpose cannot be rented. We have, therefore* 
to recommend most urgently that the old Washington school fund, amounting 
to $70,630.49, now invested in 3.65 Dis<frict of Columbia bonds, be appropri- 
ated to the erecting of a high-school building for the girls and boys of the 
white schools of the District, and that a part of square 446 be used as a site 
for the same." 

In their report, page 5, the Commissioners say that they 
" cheerfully unite with the trustees in recommending again 
to Congress the appropriation to this object of the school 



48 THE TRIUMVIRS 

fund of $70,630.49, now invested in 3.65 bonds of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia," &c. 

As they could "unite with the trustees" on nothing but 
the recommendation of the latter to use that fund to build a 
high school on square 446, they were understood at first to 
be publicly pledged to that measure. The omission of refer- 
ence to the usual $100,000 appropriation for common-school 
buildings was generally attributed to inadvertence and to the 
Commissioners' notorious want of exactness of statement. 

As these Commissioners were known, however, to have 
been put into office by a clique hostile to the public-school 
system, it was thought best to watch their doings at the 
Capitol. 

Late in December the proofs were conclusive that Messrs. 
Dent and Morgan were clandestinely using all their official 
influence to defeat the regular annual appropriation of $100,- 
000 for the common-school buildings, to defeat the erection 
of any high-school building, and, above all things, to pre- 
vent the use of square 446 for that purpose. Meanwhile 
they had given to the friends of the schools what is known 
as " tafi:y," without stint as to quantity. 

To organize resistance to these intrigues of Messrs. Dent 
and Morgan, a meeting was called January 7, 1881. (Cong. 
Kec, Feb. 2, 1881.) Mr. Dent was present and made a 
speech. Its gist was a confession of treachery and practical 
hostility to the school system, with profuse professions of 
love for it; in short, the Commissioners were determined to 
defeat the $100,000 appropriation ; to send over the high 
school to the " sweet by and by," and to divert the Wash- 
ington school fund from its proper object. 

A committee of fifteen, appointed to conduct the fight, 
waited next morning on the Commissioners. On that oc- 
casion Commissioner Morgan developed himself fully in 
hostility to the measures advocated by the committee, and 
announced himself as determined to have the south half of 
square 446 for the market men. The battle being thus 
set, both sides went to work with Congress and its com- 
mittees. It was a lively fight. The high-school men got 
the House and the Commissioners the Senate. Conference 
committees were appointed, and failed several times to 
agree. At one time it looked as though no District appro- 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 



49 



priation bill could pass; but on the last day but one, March 
Sd, the Senate conferees yielded, and the high-school appro- 
priation was won. 

The Two Letters. 

In illustration of the charge of duplicit}^ brought against 
the Commissioners, I propose now to put in parallel columns 
two declarations of Commissioner Morgan on the subject of 
the high-school. 

The first is from a letter to Representative Samford, dated 
January 27, 1881, and read at his request February 2, 1881, 
to the House for the purpose of aiding to defeat the high- 
school bill in the alleged interest of market dealers. 

The second is from the letter sent last June by the Com- 
missioners to President Garfield, to palliate their conduct 
iu proposing to appropriate the school children's play ground 
on square 446 as a site for a police station house, wherein 
to gather all the drunkards, ruffians and prostitutes found 
in that part of the city : 



"Commissioiier Morgan to Mr. Samford, 
Jan. 27, 1881. 

"Dear Sik : In answer to your 
inquiry as to the Commissioners hav- 
ing given their consent to the erection 
of a public school on the south side 
of square 446, or that they have rec- 
ommended the same, I would state 
that, personally, I have always been 
opposed to diverting this property 
from its original purpose, for markets, 
to any other. 

" As to the erection of the proposed 
high-school on the square named, I 
have been opposed to it all along, and 
so expressed myself to all who made 
any inquiry. 

" Sincerely, 

Thomas P. Morgan. 



'^The Commissioners to Fresident Gar- 
field, June, 1881. 
"In reply, the Commissioners beg 
leave to state that they liave never 
contemplated the erection of a market 
house on said square. On the con- 
trary, they have more than once in 
their annual reports recommended to 
Congress the appropriation of this 
property, originally purchased for a 
market, to the uses of the public 
schools of this District : and during 
the last session of Congress they aided 
in procuring the passage of an act 
providing for the removal of the 
market sheds which have for several 
years occupied the same." — Sec letter 
on Commissioners' files. 



"N. B. — The Commissioners, as a 
board, have never recommended any- 
thing touching this subject." — Cong. 
Rec, 88, page 19. 

These statements are not non-committal ones — Van Bu- 
renisms — leaving the mind in doubt 



50 



THE TRIUMVIRS 



"Whether the snake that made the track 
Was going South or coming back." 

They are positive and willful misstatements ; the first, 
intended to defeat the high-school hill by deceiving the 
House as to the past action of the Commissioners ; the sec- 
ond, intended to ward off the just anger of President Gar- 
field by falsely claiming to have aided in passing the same 
bill. Was ever shame like this ? 

The Same Letter. 

Take one case more. The Commissioners proposed, and 
were getting ready to build, a police station-house alongside 
the Henry and High schools ; and when citizens complained 
to them of this enormity they condescended, so the news- 
papers said, to shift the exact location a little farther from 
the Henr}^ school and a little nearer to the High school. 

Finding Morrison's Building against them, the citizens 
concluded to appeal to the White House. This brought the 
station-house outrage to a sudden halt; whereupon the Com- 
missioners undertook to explain and excuse their conduct. 
I admit this was hard to do. But who, save these Commis- 
sioners, would have imagined they were defending them- 
selves by telling the President in one paragraph that they 
had " proposed," "were considering," had "contemplated" 
erecting a station-house on the Seventh-street front of square 
446, and in the next paragraph, that they knew Congress had 
"reserved" this front for another purpose ? Here is what 
they say : 



"In regard to the proposed erection 
of a police station-house on this square 
the Commissioners respectfully sub- 
mit the following statement: 

" ' Congress at its last session pro- 
vided for the erection of two police sta- 
tion-houses, but inadvertently omitted 
to provide for the purchase of sites for 
the same; * * * and, anticipating 
no objection to the use of a portion 
(the Seventh -street front) of this 
square for the purpose, they were con- 
sidering the propriety of doing so,' 
&c. And again, 'it was contemplated 
to erect a station-house' on square 
446,' " &c. — Letter to President Garfield. 



"On the contrary, they (the Com- 
missioners) have personal knowledge 
that the Seventh-street front of said 
square (446) being valuable business 
property, was especially reserved by 
Congress to be sold for the erection of 
other school-houses." — Letter to Presi- 
dent Garfield. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 51 

This is duplicity, or something worse. If the Commis- 
sioners knew, as they say they did, that Congress had 
"reserved" this property for the erection of school-houses, 
then they were treating Congress with contempt in propos- 
ing to turn it over to the police ; if they did not know Con- 
gress had so reserved it, then they ought not to have said so. 

Corrupt Use of Power. 

I doubt not the good people of the District have seen 
enough of their rulers as letter-writers. Perhaps they may 
now like to look at them as witnesses. I cannot say the 
spectacle will tend to flatter local pride, but it may tend to 
show the character and calibre of the men set to rule over 
them. 

In the course of an investigation into District matters 
by a committee of Congress last winter, it was discovered 
that the Commissioners had been using their powers in the 
personal interest of one of their own number. The sub- 
committee having the matter specially in charge says : 

" The assessments against the (Linthicum) estate were reduced hy the Com- 
missioners from $2,324.82 to $290.82, or ^Ih per cent. * * * That the- 
only assessment annulled on this ground ('jumping' the contract) wms (his one 
afiFecting the estate of which one of the Commissioners is a trustee, and hia 
wife and son the beneficiaries. * * It appears that this was not a 'jumped^ 
contract after all, in the sense in which that expression has been used. There 
were valid contracts for both the work on First street and the work on Water 
street. * * * The transaction is thus deprived of its last defense. It 
stands simply as an unlawful annulment by the Commissioners of an assess- 
ment lawfully levied on one of their number," 

In the investigation which led the committee to the con- 
clusion just quoted, Mr. Dent appeared as a witness for the 
purpose of clearing himself of having participated in this 
job. He swears to an alibi; says he was not present when 
the job was put through; although he admits he knew it 
was going to be put through, for he says he " declined to 
be present." 

Mr. Dent on the Witness Stand. 

Mr. Aldrich : 

Q. " Do you know what Commissioners were present when the orders in 
relation to the assessments for the improvements ordered in 1879 were made? 

A. "* * * I was not present. I declined to be present, or to have any- 
thing to do with it. 



52 THE TRIUMVIRS 

Q. *'V/lio,t W!i3 your connection with the Linthicum estate? 

A. " I was one of the trustees. 

■Q- '■ Vi'ho was the beneficiary? 

A. " Mrs. Linthicum. 

Q. "And who subsequent to lier? 

A. "In case of her death, my son, being of age, would be the beneficiary." 

-A- -X- * * 

Q. "You say you were not present at the time the order directing the 
reduction was made ? 

A. " I was not. 

Q. " Will you be kind enough to furni.sh us with the records of the Com- 
jnissioners' office at the time that order was issued? 

A. " Yes, sir. I suppose it was recorded." 

Second Day. 

"Mr. Aldrich. " In the examination of Saturday I asked you to bring with 
^ou to-day the records of the Commissioners, that we might be able to see who 
■were present at the time the order was made in regard to Water street, George- 
town. Have you them with you? 

The witness. " I have the record of the action of the board, copied from the 
files that pertain to the case. 

Mr. Aldrich. " I want the records of the Commissioners, to see what Com- 
missioners were present. 

The witness. " There seems to have been no formal record kept of the action 
of the Commissioners on that occasion. 

Mr. Aldrich. " Be kind enough, when you next appear before the commit- 
tee, to bring up the records, so that we may see who were present at the 
meeting of October 10, 1879. 

The witness. " There does not appear to be any record of any special meet- 
ing on that occasion. 

Mr. Aldrich. " I want the original records. 

The witness. " I can send for them now." 
(The original records were sent for.) 

By Mr. Aldrich : 

Q. " As I understand you, the Commissioners keep no regular record in a 
book of their proceedings? 

A. "Not all of the proceedings. They keep a record of the orders made. 
For instance, there is in the paper which I have just handed to you an order 
which was made in the case. 

Q. "Do not the record books show who were present at the meeting when 
that order was made ? 

A. "No, sir." 

* * * * 

(The book of records having been procured from the Commissioners' oflBce, 
Mr. Aldrich asked the witness to refer to the record of October 9, 1879, and 
to read it from the book.) 

The witness read, as follows : 

" ' Present, Commissioners Dent, Twining and the President. The board met 
at the usual hour. Ordered, that the assessment for the improvement of 
Water street, in Georgetown, under an extension of contract No. 765, with. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 53 

George Neitzey, be reduced to the cost of relaying the former cobble-stone 
pavement and grading. — Oct. 10, '79." 

Mr. Aldiich. " Does that refresh your recollection as to the fact whether 
you were present or not? 

The witness. " This is a record that I was present in the ofiBce that day, but 
it does not contradict what I have said, that I had nothing to do with the pro- 
ceedings of the board on that occasion. 

Mr. Aldrich. " You said that you were not present. 

The witness. "It is impossible for me to say whether I was or not. * * * 
I positively declined to have anything to do with it. 

Mr. Iletikle. " You mean that you did not vote on the question ? 

The witness. " I had nothing at all to do with the proceeding. I was not 
consulted, and took no part in it. I may have been in the room, and I suppose 
that that is what the record means." 

Wliat a figure for the cliief magistrate of a great city ! 

He first denies being present; then produces a partial 
record to throw the committee off the track, and when 
driven to a corner sends for the original book, which shows 
that he was present when the order was passed relieving his 
famil3''s property from taxation. 

Then he undertakes to excuse himself by saying that "he 
was not consulted " in the matter. But he had just told the 
committee that he had " declined to be present." How could 
he have declined to be present if he had not been consulted 
about it ? 

Comment is wasted on such a wretched performance as 
this. 



IV. 

Persona! Matters. 

It is not agreeable to me to dwell on the use by the Com- 
missioners of their ofiicial power for selfish personal pur- 
poses, and it is not important to the public interests that I 
should. I will not mention, therefore, the petty instances 
of this kind named by rumor ; and on behalf of Mr. Mor- 
gan, I concede that his offenses in this respect are mostly 
those of a vain and extremely obliging disposition, having 
reached his office without, apparently, any well-defined, sel- 
fish objoct, except tlie salary and the conspicuous position. 
Mr. Dent, however, had his little plans; such as the reduc- 
tion of the special assessment on the Linthicum estate, the 



54 THE TRIUMVIRS 

improvement of a street leading to his residence, the putting 
a relative in office, and the acquittal, at the expense of the 
District, of his obligation to one of the sureties on his official 
bond. 

"We have seen how he managed to reduce the special as- 
sessment on Water street, Georgetown, by seven-eighths ; and 
what trouble that act got him into with the congressional 
committee. 

Scarcely had Mr. Dent got warm in his official seat when 
an expenditure of more than $22,000 was ordered for the 
improvement of a street directly on the line of travel between 
his residence and that of another member of the board. The 
expenditure was illegal, neither estimate nor appropriation 
having been made for the improvement* This was publicly 
charged at the time ; and, as Mr. Dent goes readily to the 
papers and did not contradict, it must be assumed to be true. 

October 29, 1878, W. C. Dent, a relative, was appointed 
to a position in the special assessment office ; but the news- 
papers are formidable and Mr. Dent timid, so the "feeler" 
was quietly withdrawn. 

In the only other case of this kind, which I cannot pass 
without mention, Mr. Dent has explained and re-explained 
in the newspapers, without lessening the severity of the 
public disapprobation. I refer to what is known as " The 
Old Brewery Case." The leading facts are : The late Mr. 
Higgs, banker, had owned for many years a dilapidated 
building near Tiber creek ; he had never been able to rent 
it or use it; it was a veritable old rookerj'. Mr. Riggs became 
one of Mr. Dent's sureties. Soon thereafter the old build- 
ing was "fixed up" and leased to the District as a school- 
house, at the enormous rent annually of $3,000, with an op- 
tion to the District of purchase at some forty or fifty thou- 
sand dollars ! Mr. Dent has pleaded that some other Com- 
missioner acted; that he personally did not join in making 
the orders; that a school trustee recommended; that the 
school board accepted ; and so forth and so on for quantity. 
But public opinion is inexorable, and holds Mr. Dent guilty 
of more than a gross indelicacy, which he impliedly con- 

*The Comptroller of the Treasury in his cnrront report calls attention to this illegality and 
suggests that Congress must legislate before these unlawful accounts of the C(jnimissioners can 
be settled. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 55 

fesses. I challenge him now, if he wishes to test public 
opinion, to push the scheme for buying at the option. We 
will have the best real estate dealers before the congressional 
committee to testify to the value of the real estate ; and all 
the ex-school trustees to testify as to its value for school pur- 
poses. The conclusion to which the committee will come is 
that the "Old Brewer}'," with its single staircase, cannot be 
used permanently as a school building; that the site is not 
desirable, and that fifteen hundred dollars is all that should 
be paid for a school-house site at that point* 



V. 
THE CLIQUE. 

I now turn with pleasure to matters of graver importance. 
My chief cause of complaint against the Commissioners is 
that they are the pliant agents of a clique of bankers and 
railroad and horse-car companies, acting together for the 
advancement of their interests and the protection of the 
last named from suit for arrears of taxes due the District. 
If these banded interests which now govern this District are 
to be continued in power, they will generally govern through 
weak men — men of the same character as Mr. Dent and 
Mr. Morgan — men without power of initiative, and willing 
to take orders from their masters so long as they are left to 
fatten on their salaries and indulge their vanity in wearing 
scarfs on gala days, and issuing proclamations after the 
Presidential style. It is possible, however, if Messrs. Dent 
and Morgan should be removed on personal grounds, that 
we might get in exchange one of our real rulers, associated, 

*In a former chapter I referred to thfi leasing for school purposes, by the Commissiouers, of 
the old brewery in the northeast part of the city, ami supposed at the time it was the property 
of the late Mr. Riggs. I have since learned that it belonged to the bank, of which, however, 
he was principal owner. I also stated that the owners of the brewery had never been able to 
rent or use it. I learn they once succeeded in finding a purchaser; buit whan he came to view 
the proper*^ he "jumped the town," and has not been heard of since. My attention was drawn 
to this case because a former school board had examined into the fitness of the building for 
school uses, and reported against it. The sudden change of front on this subject attracted con- 
siderable comment at the time, and, because of the confidential relations understood to exist be- 
tween the Commission<'r and his bondainan, the name of the deceasd banker was frequently 
mentioned. But I have never heard any one redoct on the personal integrity of Mr. Kiggs, nor 
did I intend to do so. I was characterizing the act of tlie other man. 



56 THE TRIUMVIRS 

perhaps, with a weak colleague. "\V"c might, for instance, 
get a bank president, or a street-railroad company president 
or vice-president, of brains and energy, who would condes- 
cend to leave his own money making long enough to get 
the District law shaped so as to further the interests of liira- 
self and his co-adjutors. He would dine and wine congress- 
men, take them out driving behind his high steppers, and 
convince them that men who have ample property, through 
keenness and unscrupulousness, arc the best administrators 
of public affairs; that the man who has always exhibited 
the selfishness of a bird of prey is certain to be transformed, 
by appointment to a commissionership, into a philanthropist 
devoted to the good of his fellow-citizens ! It is astonishing 
how readily some congressmen, under the logical influences 
of good dinners and pleasant drives, believe in such meta- 
morphoses, which, to citizens generally, are as miraculous 
as any chanted by Ovid. 

I want no such change. If we can't change the real 
rulers, let us keep Messrs, Dent and Morgan. If they don't 
help us much, they can't help their masters much, except 
b}' prevention of proper legislation. Their loins are not so 
thick as the little finger of their would-be successor. Their 
whips are more endurable than the scorpions we might have 
to suffer. My quarrel is not with Messrs. Dent and Morgan, 
or either of them, personally, but with the clique vv^hose 
work they are content to do — a clique few in number and 
thoroughly selfish, unfit to administer the law in a commu- 
nity of freemen, governing by secret influences, not possess- 
ing the confidence of their fellow-citizens, and without 
sympathy with the administration of the national Govern- 
ment. 

The local government of this District should be placed in 
the hands of men of experience in municipal affairs, knowl- 
edge of business, identified with the large majority of citi- 
zens who in the last twenty years have built up the national 
capital — men whose views are not those formed under trea- 
sonable influences: men who are not drao-fred alono; behind 
the car of progress; men who are abreast with the times* 
men who are not secretly hostile to the national administra- 
tion. Am I extravagant in claiming that President Arthur 
can find quite as much municipal knowledge and adminis- 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 57 

trative ability in the 102,000 people added to this District 
since 1860 as in the small clique belonging to the remainder, 
but not representing them, I'rom which President Hayes se- 
lected our local rulers? 

I shall endeavor to demonstrate to the incredulous, if such 
there be, that the clique referred to has governed this Dis- 
trict for some 3'ears past, and to point out what it has done 
and what it intends to do. 

The Old Corporation.* 

From 1802 to 1871 Washington had a municipal govern- 
ment, constructed on the common model of Southern vil- 
lages. It was legislated for on the pure state-rights theory. 
It was not recognized as the capital of a nation. Until 1861, 
it was regarded by our secession rulers as soldiers regard 
barracks — as a temporary shelter for the headquarters of 
confederated States, liable to be abandoned at any moment. 
Valuable improvements for Federal purposes were be- 
grudged. The streets were generally unpaved ; horses and 
carriages were stalled in the Avenue, and Calhoun and 
Hayne picked their way carefully through the mud to the 
Capitol, striding from one to another of the loose stones 
placed across the miry streets by their body slaves. The 
best avenues and streets were dimly lighted at night, here 
and there, with oil lamps, and the others lay in total dark- 
ness. Crimes of violence abounded; the significant names 
of "Hell's Bottom," "Murder Bay," applied to large locali- 
ties of the city, are historical monuments of the barbarism 
oi ante helium days. 

The public schools were intended for paupers. In the 
Southern idea, no gentleman could send his son or daughter 
to a public school ; an idea which survives in great strength 
in our own day, and accounts for the large number of pri- 
vate schools, especially for girls, in Washington. 

The city government drew feebly its little breath of life. 
It was always impoverished, generally bankrupt, and inces- 
santly clamoring to Congress for relief and aid. The rich 
men would not pay taxes, but cunningly shifted the heaviest 
burdens from themselves and forced them on the shoulders 



*The remainder of this chapter first appeared in the Sunday Gazette oyer the letters " E. C." 



58 TEE TRIUMVIRS 

of the poor. Speculators who owned many city lots must 
have dictated the ordinance which made, in effect, their pre- 
vious assent necessary to an}- street improvement; they were 
thus exempted from assessments for sidewalks and carriage- 
ways. But the whole cost of these were taxed to the honest 
citizen, who asked for improvements, because he wanted a 
good street opposite his residence. Thus, the poor man 
owning a dwelling might pay more for street improvements 
than the speculating owner of city lots worth a million. 

Licenses were required of men wishing to follow indus- 
trial occupations; and this tax, also, did not fall on the bank- 
ers and speculators. 

A revenue was drawn from licensing slave pens and auc- 
tion blocks on which human beings were exposed for sale. 
"Washington became the great slave market for Maryland 
and Virginia; husbands were torn from their wives and 
mothers from their children and sold on the chief streets of 
"Washington to the highest bidder, while ladies and school 
children looked on to learn humanity and citizens speculated 
in human flesh to make money. There was a slave pen on 
Seventh street, beyond the arsenal ; a second, on Pennsyl- 
vania avenue, just below Seventh; a third, on Seventh street, 
opposite the Center Market; and a fourth, on Pennsylvania 
avenue, just east of Lafayette Park, and within a stone's 
throw of the White House. The President, no doubt, often 
heard the strident voice of the auctioneer of human cattle ; 
and he could see the chained gangs of wretched captives as 
they were driven in open day to the wharves, for the South 
and a market. Washington capital was invested in this 
horrid commerce ; and of many a line residence in the city, 
every brick is cemented in human blood. 

It was reiDutable then to trade in slaves. A colored man 
was presumed to be a slave ; it was reputable to arrest him, 
imprison him, and, if no white man claimed him, to sell him 
for jail fees ! 

It was disreputable to speak against this infamy! danger- 
ous even! Twenty years ago these horrors existed; the 
shackles have hardly rusted ; the auction blocks have not 
rotted; the speculators in God's image still live ! not only 
live, but they ask for honors and municipal power ! 



OF FOUR-AXD-A-HALF STREET. 59 

Rebellion Times. 

The rebellion caused the deposal of the old dynasty, 
social and political. Some of its members fled to the South; 
some to foreign lands; others stayed to haggle with the 
Government for the price of their slaves; but the city 
remained full of rebel sympathizers, v^ho played the spy 
during the rebellion and have played the hypocrite ever 
since. With the influx of a new population new ideas 
began to flourish. New men came to the front. The pub- 
lic schools for white children rose in honor; they emerged 
from the "pauper" condition; and, for the tirst time, 
schools were established for colored children. These were 
no longer put up for sale. The nation had laid its heavy 
hand on slavery and crushed it. The period was one of 
transition, not of construction and organization. 

From 1865 to 1871. 

During these six years the crystallization of the new ele- 
ments of society was going on. The population increased 
rapidly. There was general progress, but the old dynasties 
began, also, to reorganize with a view to regain power. 
Meanwhile they became the opposition party in municipal 
politics. 

From 1871 to 1874. 

The territorial District government, organized in February, 
1871, was the first formulated demonstration of the New 
Washington. It was, perhaps, premature ; certainly incom- 
plete and novel. There were no precedents for its methods; 
every part of its organic law needed construction ; the right 
of sufii-age was ill-guarded ; and the new governm.ent, from 
its inauguration, was forced to struggle for life against the 
social, political and money power of the ante bellum dynasty 
and its recent allies. The leaders of the reaction repre- 
sented large wealth. Being bent on selfish gain, they were 
all things to all men. Taught by reverses, they had no 
" views." Whatever they were in private and with each 
other, they simulated liberality of opinion ; the Republican 
party, being in power, these ex-slavcholdcrs rejoiced that 
slavery was abolished; these d^-ed-in-the-wool Democrats 
denounced secession, and kept secret their contributions to 



60 THE TRIUMVIRS 

Democratic funds; they frequented men in Ligh oiSce, cul- 
tivated congressmen and tendered money accommodations 
to the President. In pa3'ing honor to Republican rresidents, 
they elbowed out Eepublicans themselves. President Grant, 
however, knew; a cat when he saw one, spite of any covering 
of meal ! And he knew the clique. 

Alexander E. Shepherd was the representative of the 
popular cause. A man of the people, his qualities were 
those of a great tribune. He wished to build up a national 
capital, not to be removed through enduring ages. To do 
this, he taxed the bankers, the real estate speculators ; he 
made them feel, for the first time, the weight of burdens 
they had always put on the poor. And they hated him. 

Under his sympathetic favor the public schools maintained 
their forward movement; and these ex-slaveholders hated 
him for that. Enterprise and commerce began to grow ; 
men of intelligence began to migrate to Washington ; the 
waste places of the city were covered with houses, and the 
eyes of the whole people were turned with interest and pride 
to what had been a straggling Southern village. 

It is a great pity the Governor's energy was not toned 
down by administrative experience and legal knowledge. 
His vigilant enemies profited by his mistakes; they put their 
arrows into every open joint of his hariiess. But, whatever 
may have been his faults, he was nobler than the clique that 
brought him down. He was — 

" The eagle towering iu his pride of place, 
AiiJ, l)j a mousing owl, hawked at and killed." 

From i874 to 1877. 

For about tliree ^-ears there was an adinterim District gov- 
ernment, devoted chiefly to finishing improvements, getting 
business into regular order and restoring the finances. It 
was conducted by Commissioners who were not residents of 
the District. These gentlemen were hardly in their seats 
before they were summoned to surrender to the clique which 
had overthrown Shepherd, It would seem that these stran- 
gers did not appreciate fully the power that lay back of the 
summons. Their eyes were opened, on the advent of Mr. 
Hayes, when the old secessionist, slavchohling, anti-public 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. Gl 

school dynasty presented itself as a banking, railroad and 
whiskey-sellers' league, with a howling train of Democrats 
and delinquent tax-debtors. As a Republican, Unionist, 
Anti-Monopolist and Temperance man. President Hayes felt 
it to be his duty, in the interest of harmony and conciliation, 
to sacrifice his own party and principles, and personal friend, 
Governor Dennison, It was thus that the District govern- 
ment was handed over to the puppets of a secret band of 
Democrats, ex-slaveholders, secessionists, speculators in Dis- 
trict funds, delinquent railroad corporations and knights of 
of the spigot and funnel. 

From 1877 to 1881. 

Since this unfortunate capitulation of President Hayes, the 
methods, principles, and men of ante helium times have been 
in power. The ostensible seat of the District government is 
at Columbia Building, on Four-and-a-Half street; the real 
seat is nearer the corner of Fifteenth street and Pennsylva- 
nia avenue. 

Let us stop and study the list of removals and appoint- 
ments of District officers made by the clique, through the 
grace of a so-called Republican President, immediatel}' after 
its advent to power. Bear in mind that the Old Washington, 
of ante beltum days, including the county, contained 75,080 
inhabitants, while the New Washington of to-day contains 
177,624 iidiabitants ; that is, there have been added to the 
District during and since the war more than 102,000 new 
citizens as against the 75,000 old citizens who resided here 
before. 

You may do well to keep in mind also the familiar expres- 
sion, " He is an old citizen." It is much in vogue and very 
persuasive at Columbia Building ; it means that the party 
to whom it is applied is worthy to hold office. It means 
more — it means that citizens not born in Maryland, Virginia 
or the District of Columbia, are not worthy to hold office, 
or not so worthy as those who happen to have that good 
fortune. 

In the light of this fact and the history of the governing 
clique, already sketched, it is easy to formulate the rules 
which control removals from and appointments to office 
under the present District government. They are : First, 



62 THE TRIUMVIRS 

"Old Citizenship;" and, second, "Democracy;" that is, 
the applicant, in order to obtain office, must be an old citi- 
zen, born in Maryland, Virginia or the District of Columbia, 
and he must be a Democrat. And the same rules apply and 
the same qualiiications are necessary in order to be retained 
in office. 

Of course there are exceptions to these rules, as there 
are to all rules. Eich people and bankers are excepted, 
as are trimmers, who 

" * * crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, 
Where thrift may follow fawning." 

Turn first to the record of removals and appointments of 
school trustees for the white schools of Washington, George- 
town, and Uniontown. 

Colonel George W. Dyer, a new citizen and Republican, 
was superseded by Mr. B. G. Lovejoy, and old citizen and 
Democrat. 

Dr. Robert Reyburn, a new citizen and Republican, was 
replaced by Dr. George C. Samson, an old citizen and 
Democrat. 

General Wm. Henry Browne, a new citizen and Republi- 
can, was superseded by Mr. T. A. Lambert, an old citizen 
and Democrat. 

Mr. Edward Baldwin, an old citizen but a Republican, 
was superseded by Mr. Edward Temple, a banker and 
Democrat. 

General Charles E. Hovey, a new citizen and Republican, 
was superseded by Mr. Madison Davis, an old citizen of un- 
known politics. 

Mr. Edmund F. French, a new citizen and Republican, 
was superseded by Mr. D, W. Middletou, an old citizen and 
Democrat. 

Mr. C. B. Smith, a new citizen and Republican, was super- 
seded by Dr. Arthur Christie, an Englishman, not natural- 
ized at the time of appointment, but a rich man and seces- 
sionist. This brought him into fellowship with the clique, 
and he was appointed. 

Mr. Benj. F. Lloyd, an old citizen and Democrat, fully 
met the requirements of both rules, and was continued in 
office. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 



63 



Mr. George White, an old citizen but a Republican, was 
superseded bj Mr. Joseph L. Pearson, an old citizen and 
Democrat. 

Dr. Charles H. Cragin, a new citizen and Republican, was 
superseded by Mr. C. M. Matthews, an old citizen and 
Democrat. 

Mr. W. W. Curtis, a new citizen, Republican and " trim- 
mer," succeeded in holding on to his place by flattering his 
neighbor and townsman, Mr. Commissioner Dent. 

I will place these names side by side. On the one side 
are the men of the new Washington, ai)pointed by Gov- 
ernor Dennison and his colleagues ; on the other are the 
men of the old Washington, appointed by Mr. Dent and his 
colleagues : 



Gov. Dennison' s School Board. 

Dr. Chas. H. Cragin, Rep. 
W. W. Curtis, Hep. 
Col. Geo. W. Djer, Rep. 
Dr. Robert Reyburn, Rep. 
Gen. Wm. H. Browne, Rep. 
Edward Baldwin, Rep. 
Gen. Chas. E. Hovey, Rep. 
Edmund F. French, Rep. 
Benjamin F. Lloyd, Dem. 
George White, Rep. 
C. B. Smith, Rep. 



Mr. Dent's School Board. 

Chas. M. Mathews, Dem. 
W. W. Curtis, Trim. 
Ben. G. Lovejoy, Dem. 
Dr. Geo. C. Samson, Dem, 
T. A. Lambert, Dem. 
Edward Temple, Dem. 

Madison Davis, . 

D. V,'. Middletou, Dem. 
Benj. F. Lloyd, Dem. 
Josepli L. Pearson, Dem. 
Dr. Arthur Christie, Dem. 



The foregoing list includes only the white members of the 
school board appointed for Washington and its two suburbs, 
Georgetown and Uniontown. Members appointed for the 
colored schools and for the county are not included. 

In the Fire Board a vigorous fight was curried on for many 
months against Mr. William B. Reed, a Republican, though 
an old citizen, but when lie died the board was again brought 
under the operation of the two rules and made solid — all 
old citizens — all Democrats. 

The treasurer, Mr. Robert P. Dodge; the water registrar, 
Mr. Thomas C. Cox ; tbe inspector of buildings, Mr. Thomas 
B. Entwisle; and the health othcer, Dr. Smith Townshend, 
are furtber illustrations of tiie practical application by the 
Commissioners of their two rules. The collector Mr. John 
F. Cook, was able to meet the requirement of the first rule, 
and the shade of his genial face enabled him to hedge 



€4 • THE TRIUMVIRS 

against the second. The Auditor, Mr. John T. Vinson, is 
an " old citizen," but how he escaped decapitation under the 
second rule is more than I know. 

In short, any man not an old citizen and a Democrat, has 
no standing at District headquarters under Messrs. Dent and 
Morgan and the clique who control them. 



VI. 
THE CLIQUE AND MAJOR MORGAN. 

I have referred to the real rulers of this District as a 
clique. It is not meant by this that they have written 
articles of co-partnership, meet in midnight conclaves, have 
grips and signs, and keep a roll of members ; or that each 
member has bound himself specially to promote the designs 
of every other. It is certain that each one in his heart dis- 
approves the special object of each of the others; no one 
favors the entire tax exemption of all credits, except the 
heavy capitalist ; the assessment exemption of all street 
railroads, except the horse-car companies ; the non-collec- 
tion of tax arrears on real estate, except the delinquents ; 
the release of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company 
from more than sixty thousand dollars' indebtedness to the 
District, except that corporation; or opening a grog-shop 
on every city square, except the Liquor Dealers' Protective 
Association. But the instinct of a common purpose — 
plundering the public — unites them in a clique for a com- 
mon object, the control of the local government. Each wolf 
intends to fill his own maw; but wolves will join in a pack 
to run down a deer. During the chase they obey the 
strongest and the fiercest; and they do not quarrel over the 
carcass if there is enough to feed all. So the members 
of the clique, with the quick intuition of selfishness, recog- 
nize their leader and obey him ; and they divide the spoils 
in silence. 

Three Years, and $50,000. 

"What I call the " clique " dictated the important features 
of the law of June, 1878, for the permanent government of 
the District; and among other ingenious contrivances, the 



OF FOUE'AND-A'IIALF STREET. 65 

provisions that the Civil Commissioners shall have resided 
in the District three years before appointment, and shall 
not, in that time, have claimed residence anywhere else ; 
and that each of them shall give an official bond in |50,000. 
These tend to exclude the new population. Men remov- 
ing to Washington do not renounce formally their citizen- 
ship elsewhere, and few Republicans own real estate enough 
to warrant them in giving a bond of that amount. As 
the bond has never been, and probably never will be, 
sued on, its only object seems to be the exclusion of 
the class which includes nearly all the Republicans. The 
practical result is to prevent the candidacy of many compe- 
tent men, and compel every appointee to fall upon his knees 
to the clique, in consideration of the signatures on his bond. 

The Contrivance of a Bond. 

A striking illustration of the operation of this contrivance 
is the case of a Commissioner who was appointed as a Re- 
publican and Temperance man, and who, to get sureties on 
his bond, sold himself, official soul and body. I refer to 

Thomas P. Morgan, 

a pledged Republican. 

I am not altogether clear that the police major was a 
Republican before he became a candidate. He probably 
belonged to that large and conservative class in this District 
who belong to no party out of power, and contribute to 
none ; who have no political views ; who can change so as 
to suit any administration the people may choose to elect, 
but who always treat the " outs " as if they may some day 
be " ins," as Chesterfield wanted the preacher to speak of 
the devil — " politely, for we know not into whose hands we 
may fall." It is pretty certain that the police major, when a can- 
didate, proved that he was a good enough Republican to suit 
Mr. Hayes, who was probably not severe in his requirements 
in this particular, and pledged himself to conduct the District 
government on " Republican principles;" which is not, per- 
haps, as definite as it might have been. It appears that, in 
view of this pledge, a gentleman who was high in the 
councils of the Republican party withdrew all opposition to 
Major Morgan's appointment, and I have no doubt the 



66 THE TRIUMVIRS 

Major intended at the time to keep what was, for him, a 
pledge of honor rather than of conviction. 

A Temperance Man. 

"Whatever doubt there may exist as to the Republicanism 
of Major Morgan before he was a candidate, there is none as 
to his temperance principles. Personally, he had abstained 
for many years from intoxicating liquors. He made total 
abstinence a part of his religion. He was understood to hold 
extreme views about the sinfulness of drinking alcoholic bev- 
erages. In his Sunday-school he lectured the children on 
the subject. His zeal had led him to identify himself pub- 
licly with the cause ; as a police major he had opposed grant- 
ing certain licenses ; he had attended temperance meetings 
and spoken at them. I do not know that he belonged to 
the Rechabites, or the Jonadabs, or the Dashaways; but it 
is not improbable. At any rate, he possessed their entire 
confidence, sympathy and support. The ladies of the Wo- 
men's Christian Temperance Union esteemed him highly as 
a reliable temperance man, and they did not fail to impress 
their confidence in him upon Mrs. Hayes, the accomplished 
lady who managed the White House so gracefully, and 
who took so deep an interest in temperance reform. It is 
certain that the whole moral, social and political power of 
the temperance people of the District, and the power is very 
great, was used to secure the appointment of Major Morgan 
as Commissioner. It is about as certain as anj'thing of the 
kind can be, that he was appointed because of the request 
of the temperance people. President Playes took a lazy 
interest in the temperance question, and was willing to 
oblige the temperance ladies. 

That Official Bond. 

Having clutched his appointment, the Major looked 
around for sureties on his otScial bond. And now his 
troubles began. No temperance man had any special inter- 
est worth $50,000 in the management of the District govern- 
ment, and no one saw why he should risk ruin for himself 
and family to oblige the Major. The Republicans thought 
the Major a little off color and hesitated; but they would 
probably have provided him with a bond if the Major had 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 67 

not become frightened and sold himself to the clique. Of 
the leading sureties on his bond, three (Messrs. E. E. White, 
Hume and Barbour,) were furnished from among the wealthy 
members of the " Liquor Dealers' Protective Association," 
and one was the political representative of the banking and 
money interests, (Mr. John A. Baker.) There were, of course, 
no articles of agreement signed and sealed ; the bargain was 
an understood thing, like all political bargains. If Morgan 
had been asked a week before whether he w^ould have made 
it, he would have answered, " Is thy servant a dog that he. 
should do this thing?" 

What the Temperance People Expected Commissioner IVIorgan to da.. 

Fortunately w^e are able to tell with precision what this 
was. I have now before me the pamphlet containing the 
address and resolutions of the " Pastors' Union," which led. 
the temperance movement. They say on the sixth page : 

"From the beginning of the movement down to the present moment, the- 
Pastors' Union has sought only the faithful execution of the law \Yhich the^ 
Commissioners have sworn to uphold and execute." 

I have entire confidence in the calm statement of thesff 
men. They are intelligent, conscientious and without mo- 
tive to mislead. They had a right to ask the faithful execu- 
tion of the law, and they asked no more. It was the duty 
of the Commissioners to do this without being asked ; to 
require with every application for license the w^ritteu assent 
of the majority of the owners of real estate and house- 
holders on the same side of the square, and also on the 
nearest side of the opposite square, and to prosecute all 
persons selling liquor without license. 

They looked to Commissioner Morgan to enforce the law. 

What Commissioner IVIorgan Did. 

The first thing he did was to ask and obtain of his col- 
leagues the immediate and practical control of the police sys- 
tem and liquor license system. The temperance men were 
rejoiced, because they had confidence that the law would be 
enforced; the "Liquor Dealers' Protective Association" 
were delighted, because they knew the law would be disre- 
garded. 



68 THE TRIUMVIRS 

Comraissioner Morgan's predecessors had appointed a li- 
cense board whose construction of the law had been ex- 
tremely loose and always in favor of applicants. Its practice 
had been still worse. Not only had licenses been granted 
"without consent of the real estate owners and resident house- 
liolders in the vicinity, but, in many cases, on forged signa- 
tures. Six hundred licenses had been issued in 1879. Grog- 
shops sprung up near dwelling-houses, near school-houses, 
near churches. They were as thick as autumn leaves ; 
•drunkenness was made easy; drugged whiskey was as plenty 
as dirt; the business was frightfully overdone. 

Against this state of things the Pastors' Uni6n felt called 
iipon to act. They petitioned, September 20, 1880, for the 
•appointment of a new board, and that applications for license 
should be made a matter of public record. 

The first request was refused, the Commissioners stating 
that " after the most thorough scrutiny" they felt satisfied 
that the license board had discharged its duties "intelli- 
gently, impartially, faithfully and in conformity to law." 

The second request was granted.* 

The license board, thus endorsed, proceeded to recom- 
mend, and Commissioner Morgan and colleagues to grant, 
licenses about as formerly. The Pastors' Union says, page 3 : 

" The license board has worked diligently and given applicants every fa- 
cility in its power to obtain their licenses ; in many instances acting as attor- 
ney for them, returning defective applications for amendment, or because of 
lack of proper signers," etc. 

Licenses were granted without the consent required by 
law, and the Commissioners refused to prosecute men sell- 
ing without license. The Pastors' Union calls attention to 
the fact that the proprietors of one hundred or more saloons 
" continued selling without license, and the Commissioners, 
knowing that these men were violators both of the law and 
their own rules, nevertheless licensed them." They add: 

"When such parties were arrested because selling without license, and were 
fined by Judge Snell, they were promptly pardoned by the Commissioners, 
thus, in the language of Judge Snell, ' paralyzing the law.' "f 

♦1 called last week at the Columbia Building and demanded to see this pretended "public re- 
cord" without being able to do so. It appears to be kept under the vigilant guardianship of 
Commisiioner Morgan, who was absent. 

f'The District Commissioners have pardoned Michael J. Kane, convicted last Saturday of 
selling liquor without license." — Post, Oct. 25, ISSl. The "paralyzing" still goes on. 



OF FOUR- AND- A-HALF STREET. G^V 

After reviewing the action of the Commissioners in this 
matter, the Pastors' Union adopted a preamble and resolu- 
tions, beginning : 

" Whereas, the Commissioners of the District of Columbia have failed to 
enforce the liquor law, and have manifested their sympathy with a traffic 
which is a fruitful source of disorder, vice and crime ;" 

And they recommend their removal. 

In all this disgraceful business Commissioner Morgan was 
the chief actor. Sorely beset by the temperance people on 
the one hand, and by the Liquor Dealers' Association on 
the other, he gave the former "taffy" and the latter licenses. 
Some of the former might have been swallowed if the 
Major had not descended to canvass for signatures to an 
application 

For a Grog-Shop License. 

I have now to state a fact about the temperance Commis- 
sioner which is, at first blush, incredible ; but I will not go 
beyond what can be proved. 

The keeper of what is known as the " Billy Wright sa- 
loon," on F street, opposite the Masonic Temple, wanted 
last fall to get a new license. To comply with the law, the 
written consent of the board of trustees of the Masonic 
Temple was necessary ; but the board unanimously refused. 
It was supposed by some one, or suggested, (was it by the 
Commissioner?) that if some of the trustees would sign 
their consent individually and unofiicially, that that might 
do. Of course such signatures were worthless, not being 
those of property owners. A creditor of the saloon keeper 
was called in — Mr. Frank Hume. He applied to Mr. Isaac 
C Johnson, a trustee, who refused to sign the consent paper. 
Mr. Hume appears to have gone then to Commissioner 
Morgan, who gave him the following letter : 

"Office of the Commissioners, 
"District of Columbia, 

"Washington , 188-.. 

"/. L. Johnson, Esq. : 

" Dear Sir : I would be pleased if you will comply with the request of my 
friend, Frank Ilume. Very truly, 

"Thos. p. Morgan." 

On receipt of this letter, not dated and written in the. 



70 THE TRIUMVIRS 

blind style of the Delphic oracle, Mr. [Johnson took the 
" permission paper " for a liquor license, handed to him by 
Mr. Hume, and signed it in the following manner : " I. L. 
Johnson, signed at the request of Thos. P. Morgan." 

It was not long before a messenger, breathless with haste, 
came with a message from Commissioner Morgan that such 
a signature would never do, and requesting Mr. Johnson to 
remove the words "signed at the request of Thos. P. Mor- 
gan." Mr. Johnson thereupon took the paper from the 
messenger and drew his pen through the obnoxious words, 
leaving them, however, quite legible. I understand that 
after the paper got back again into Commissioner Morgan's 
hands the words were entirely blotted out. It goes without 
saying that Commissioner Morgan granted the " Billy Wright 
saloon" license, although he well knew that Mr. Johnson 
was no more the owner of the Masonic Temple than I am. 

The temperance Commissioner appears to have been ex- 
tremely anxious to cover his track in this disgraceful affair. 
He made several attempts to regain possession of his " blind " 
letter to Mr. Johnson. One of the persons who tried to per- 
suade Mr. J. to give it up was Major Brock, the Superin- 
tendent of Police. He was probably the agent and friend 
of the Commissioner in the matter. But Mr. Johnson de- 
clined; and he still holds the wonderful autograph. This 
has been seen and examined by many of the temperance peo- 
ple in the District, former friends of Commissioner Morgan; 
they all shake their heads over it. The Rechabites, Jona- 
dabs, Dashaways, Sons of Temperance, Pastors' Union and 
Women's Christian Temperance Union, all regard it as " un- 
fortunate." I shouldn't wonder if the Methodist church 
should inquire into the moral character of it. Mr. Johnson 
ought to frame it and donate it to the liquor license board, 
to be hung up in their room as a perpetual warning to weak 
Commissioners. 

And here I leave the subject. I have mentioned it to 
show that when the clique buys a Commissioner they buy 
his soul. When they degrade him they drag him in the 
dirt. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 71 

vn. 

FAVORITISM TO RAILROAD COMPANIES. 

I have set up no claim to originality in the charges I have 
made against the Commissioners. What I have written has 
been said many times by others, and very often much more 
sharply. I follow a track beaten by representatives, sena- 
tors, congressional committees, citizens and writers for the 
press. Having decided to devote this article to illustrating 
the influence of the right wing of the governing power 
of this District, the railroad corporations, I felt that I 
might expose myself to the charge, by the interested 
parties, of appealing to popular prejudice. I disclaim 
^ny intention of doing so. I appreciate these great motors 
of civilization and convenience for street travel, and I aid 
them in every legitimate way. But the men who obtain 
from the public the right to manage them in the interest of 
the public as well as their own, must observe the conditions 
of the grants, must not take more than belongs to them, 
must not seize all the profits and shirk all the burdens. My 
general view on this subject is shared by that very conserv- 
ative paper, The Evening Star, which in a late number pub- 
lishes the following editorial : 

"As things go, it is, perhaps, not surprising that our street railway compa- 
nies should refuse to pay their taxes, decline to remove the dust and filth they 
deposit in the street, and disregard generally the rights and comfort of the 
public. That is the way of corporate monopolies all the world over, and peo- 
ple do not wonder at it. But that our well-paid District authorities should 
sit idly down and permit these impositions to be practiced day after day, 
week after week, month after month, and year after year, is, indeed, amazing. 
One would suppose that self-respect and pride of position would induce a 
little energy on the part of these officials; or, if that were not incentive 
enough, that fear of losing their place, and the fat salary and personal con- 
sideration which go with it, would spur them to action occasionally. Nothing, 
however, seems to be powerful enough to stir them from the strange lotiiargy 
that holds them in its paralyzing embrace. Has the first-named consideration 
no weight with these gentlemen? Do they feel so strongly entrenched in their 
snug position that there is no danger of the second contingency taking 
'place?" 

I do not propose to go beyond the sentiment of the above 
article, but to give a few examples, by way of illustration, 
of the high and mighty way in which the railway grandees 



72 THE TRIUMVIRS 

drive their fine steppers and elegant carriages over the 
rights of the people of this District; and the low and hum- 
ble way in which our District Commissioners either prevent 
popular resistance or help the grandees in their evasion of 
taxation or assessment. I will begin with 

The Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company. 

This corporation occupies a valuable public reservation in 
the heart of the city without paying a cent of rent. It has 
also secured the right to run its tracks through more than 
two miles in length of the best streets of South Washington. 
For this it pays nothing. It might be supposed that the 
company, because of two privileges so valuable, would take 
particular and incessant care not to encroach on the reserved 
rights of the people, not to go beyond the strict letter of the 
grant. But what is the truth ? It has seized on the streets 
and avenues as its corporate property; turned a continuous 
half-mile of street into a freight depot, and an avenue into a 
cattle depot; driven its cars at high rates of speed through a 
populous city; crushed and mangled several children; made 
night hideous and sleep impossible by the shrill scream of 
steam-whistles; men have abandoned their dwellings, driven 
away by the intolerable nuisance; churches have discontin- 
ued their meetings ; the courts have been full of suits for 
damages to property, and the impoverished people of South 
Washington have for years needed only a leader to tear up 
the tracks and make a bonfire of the cars. Again and again 
have they held meetings and appointed committees to ask 
the Commissioners for enforcement of the law and pro- 
tection for their property. But these delegations are made 
to feel that they are disturbers of the official quiet. The 
Commissioners will never enforce what law there is, nor 
ask for any enactment to save South Washington. So long 
as the present clique shall govern, the dog that follows the 
president of the Baltimore and Potomac Eailroad Com- 
pany will be more honored at Columbia Building than a 
delegation of complaining citizens. 

While the Commissioners have found it impossible to go 
to Congress to get legislation for the protection of the peo- 
ple of South Washington, and are too indifferent to recom- 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 73 

mend a bill to aid them, they have been prompt and energetic 
in aiding a scheme of plunder of the District treasury by the 

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company. 

The main facts in the matter are as follows : For many- 
years the railroad company had refused to pay its taxes. 
The amount standing on the assessor's books, with interest 
and penalties, up to July 1, 1879, was - - $136,826.12; 
The Commissioners, about March, 1880, compro- 
mised for 75,000.00 



Thus making a present to the company of - 61,826.12 

This is a short statement of the transaction. All the 
facts are fully set out in the Congressional Record for January 
27, 1881. They do not make the case any better for the 
Commissioners. It appears that the taxes were in litigation.. 
The District had won the case below, and it was in the United 
States Supreme Court, on appeal by the company. It might 
be tried at the term of 1879-'80, or it might go over to the 
term of 1880-'81. The attorney for the District was quite 
coniident of success. He says in a letter to the Commis- 
sioners : "The risk to the District of being beaten by the 
judgment of the Supreme Court has, "in my opinion, no ap- 
preciable value." 

It was finally compromised January 27, 1881, a few days, 
perhaps a week or two, before the United States Supreme 
Court would have adjudged the whole amount to the Dis- 
trict. As the chief cause for non-payment was the alleged 
excessive assessments, and the company had not appealed 
from them in time, any lawyer can see that the District 
would have won the case. It was indecent not to wait. 

Of course the Commissioners left the whole thing to Con- 
gress; but why did they bring it before Congress? Why 
did they work for it from March 25, 1880, to January 27, 
1881? 

Messrs. Edmunds, Windom, Teller and Piatt were among 
those who voted against this "steal," and thirty-one sena- 
tors were absent. 

Senator Edmunds made a speech against it. I extract a 
few passages: 



74 THE TRIUMVIRS 

*'Now, it seems that the company, on one reason or another, chose 
not to pay its taxes, and it is proposed that we shall give the company the 
difference between $75,000 and ninety odd thousand dollars of actual assessed 
taxation, saying nothing about penalties and interest, simply because the 
Commissioners report that if the company had attended to its interests during 
this litigation, and had caused the assessment that was made from year to 
year to be reviewed by some proper authority, if there were any, the Com- 
missioners now think that the assessments might have been somewhat reduced." 

Referring to the question before the Supreme Court, he 
said: 

" Let that question be decided. If it turns out that the only persons who 
are entitled to escape from taxation in this District are the artificial ones 
that exist in it, or come into it, then we shall know that it is our duty to con- 
sider what step can be taken next." 

In regard to the Baltimore and Ohio Raih'oad Company, 
Mr. Edmunds said : 

"If they have legal rights, let them make them out; if they have no legal 
rights, and are bound, like other people, to pay taxes, let them pay them to 
the end-" * * * 

"Therefore, it is perfectly manifest that the Commissioners of the District 
of Columbia have no more power to rebate this $55,000 of what this company 
will have to pay if they are beaten in this lawsuit, than I have individually; 
and if you pass this bill to make this settlement, what are you going to do 
next week when the Metropolitan Railroad Company, with its $178,000 (if 
that be the amount) of unpaid assessments, and regular taxation, too, perhaps, 
comes forward and says," &c., &c. * * * 

"Then there is to be another compromise with, say the Washington and 
Georgetown Railroad Company, which, I believe, is not so deeply in," &c., &c. 
^fr * * 

Mr. Edmunds closes with these words : 

" But when it comes to invoking the legislative power to go into a contract 
settlement with a great corporation, by which it throws off about one-third of 
the whole amount of taxes, that, if we are entitled to have any at all, are due 
and payable, it appears to me it is a case which has no parallel and no prece- 
dent that I know of." 

In spite of this scathing exposure by Senator Edmunds, 
the measure was carried by the friends of the railroad com- 
pany. That such a thing is possible is a warning not to put 
into office as Commissioners men who can be led by the nose 
by any railroad corporation. The period for which the Bal- 
timore and Ohio Railroad Company had leave to run its 
cars to the present depot has expired; is any one so igno- 
rant as to expect Messrs. Dent and Morgan to enforce an 
observance of the rights of citizens ? 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 75 

The next in order is 
The Metropolitan Street-Car Company.— John W. Thompson, President. 

In 1874 it had already become evident that Mr. Thompson 
did not intend to pay the assessment upon his road if he 
could help it. His testimony before the investigating com- 
mittee in that year is interesting. (See vol. 2, pages 870 to 
882.) It showed that he did not intend to pay. At the 
same time the amount of indebtedness to the District of 
Mr. Thompson's company was large ; but in the month of 
November, 1880, and I think several years before that date, 
it had swollen to the prodigious sum of $169,553.66; that 
is, without counting interest. It is a peculiarity of the 
special assessment law that interest does not run on the 
assessment, except from the date of the tax-lien certificate 
issued upon it by the Commissioners. As the Commission- 
ers issued no tax-lien certificate, the railroad company has 
been saved the interest, which, if it had run from year to 
year, would now amount to a very large sum — about 
$80,000. How do the Commissioners explain their neg- 
lect in this regard ? They issued certificates against the 
property of many private persons, and the interest in many 
cases amounted to half as much as the principal. How did 
Mr. Thompson's company escape ? I will not assign mo- 
tives ; I state the bare facts, and everybody may draw his 
own inference. 

From the time Mr. Dent was made Commissioner there 
was a constantly gathering storm of indignant remonstrance 
because the Commissioners did not sue for, or enforce in 
some way, the collection of assessments against the Metro- 
politan, the Columbia and the Washington and Georgetown 
Railroad Companies ; squibs about it appeared in the city 
papers ; men talked the matter over on the streets ; others 
brought it to the attention of congressional committees on 
the District, and allusions were made to it on the floor of 
the House. Other public men were as familiar with it as 
Mr. Edmunds. The pressure became greater on the Com- 
missioners after their letter of March 25, 1880, asking per- 
mission to donate $61,000 to the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- 
road Company, under pretext of compromise ; and it was 
clear that the matter would be investigated by Congress if 



76 THE TRIUMVIRS 

the Commissioners should do nothing. Accordingly, on the 
27th of November, 1880, a few days before the meeting of 
Congress, they began a suit against the Metropolitan Com- 
pany for $153,216.15, being just $16,337.51 less than their 
books showed to be due as principal. They had already 
lost the interest by the non-issue of certificates, as explained 
above. The suit is ISTo. 22,458, at law ; was certified to the 
general term, March 26, 1881, and will be argued probably 
this term. It stands on demurrer. If the case shall finally 
be disposed of in the lower court during the present year. 
President Thompson can then take it, on appeal, to the 
United States Supreme Court, where it cannot be reached 
at the present rate of progress in that court for four years; 
and all this time the company is paying no interest on this 
large indebtedness, because the Commissioners have not 
issued the proper tax-lien certificates. Under the law the 
interest is ten per cent., and the annual saving to this cor- 
poration, by reason of the Commissioners' neglect and 
failure to issue the proper tax-lien certificates, is $16,955.36 ; 
or, during the four years it can yet stave off" payment by 
litigation, the modest little sum of $77,821.44. Add to this 
the $80,000 in interest heretofore avoided and you begin to 
see how it is and why it is that such corporations profit by 
having friends in power. 

But they are not satisfied even with the present Commis- 
sioners; they prefer Mr. John W. Thompson; and he, while 
protesting he does not want it, is understood to be anxious 
to have the honor forced upon him. 

"Why, there was a crown offered him; and being offered, he put it by with 
his hand, thus; and the people fell a shouting * * * Then he offered it 
to him again; then he put it by again ; but, to my thinking, he was loth to lay 
his fingers off it." 

Washington and Georgetown Street Car Company.— Henry Hurt, Pres- 
ident. 

This company, as Mr. Edmunds remarked, is " not so 
deep in " as the Metropolitan ; still its indebtedness, as 
shown on the proper books of the District, in November, 
1880, amounted to the large sum of $64,105.80. No tax 
certificate was ever issued for this ; and when the Commis- 
sioners were compelled to sue, which they did November 
27, 1880, they did so for only $20,049.66, being less by over 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 77 

forty thousand dollars, than the amount shown by the Com- 
missioners' books to be due. This case is also in General 
Terra. An examination of the books of this company will 
reveal the fact that a large part of the stock is held by prom- 
inent members of our governing clique. 

The Columbia Street Car Company.— Henry A. Willard, President. 

The route of this road is not so good as that of the other 
two, and the streets and avenues over which it passes have 
not been disturbed so often ; hence the indebtedness to the 
District is less, being only $11,257.27. But the company 
has been treated with the same or greater indulgence ; no 
tax-lien certificates have been issued against its property and 
it has not been sued at all. How the president of the road 
managed this exemption does not appear, and it makes little 
or no difference. He is understood to be the favorite " dark 
horse " of the delinquent street car companies for one of the 
Commissionerships. 

The Belt Line Street Car Company.— Chas. White, President. 

This horse-car company has a clean record at the Tax- 
Ofiice ; and, strange to sa}-, it is the only company which 
has been harassed and obstructed in its business by the 
Commissioners. 

Summary of District Losses. 

By Baltimore and Potomac R. R. Co., beyond estimation. 
By Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Co., - '- - §61,826.12 
By Metropolitan horse-car Co., - - - 169,553.66 
By Washington and Georg'n horse-car Co., - 64,105.80 
By Columbia horse-car Co., - - - - 11,257,27 

By the Belt Line horse-car Co., - - - 00,000.00 



Total, $306,742.85 

This summary does not include interest on losses by horse- 
car companies. 



Remarics. 



Itlls it not fair to conclude that there has been concert of 
action on the part of these delinquent corporations, and that 
there has been systematic favoritism on the part of the Dis- 
trict Commissioners? Why should not the tax-lien certifi- 
cates have been issued ? Why should not the two suits have 



78 THE TRIUMVIRS 

been brought for the full amount due ? Why should not 
Mr. Willard's Columbia Company have been sued with the 
others ? Why should not these important matters have been 
mentioned in the last annual report ? 

There are certain disinterested and public spirited gentle- 
men among us who profess a lively admiration for the 
talents of self-made men and a most prudent conservatism. 
The latter quality leads them to deprecate any change in 
our present Commissioners; and the former to recommend, 
in case any change shall be made, that the vacancy shall be 
filled by either of these eminent architects of their own 
fortunes, the president of the Metropolitan horse-car com- 
pany, or the president of the Columbia horse-ear company. 
They could be happy with either, they say. If any one of 
these enthusiasts were searched, his pockets would be found 
stuiied with railroad stocks and bonds. If President Arthur 
is wise, let him refuse to consider the names of either of 
the above officials, unless the indebtedness of the company 
with which the candidate is identified shall have first been 
paid up and a bond given that all future indebtedness of the 
kind shall be promptly paid. Other tax-payers are in no 
mood to have the indebtedness of these corporations to the 
District wiped out in any such way as was the tax against 
the Linthicum property on the accession of a trustee of that 
estate to power. 



YIII. 
The Gaslight Monopoly. 

I can barely touch upon the rich vein of the favoritism 
to the Gaslight Company, Does anyone doubt the fact? 
Let him go over the contracts of the District with that com- 
pany, and let him study the facts given in the congressional 
debate of February 2, 1881, {Record, No. 38.) It can be shown 
that the cost of manufacturing gas at Washington is proba- 
bly less than seventy cents a thousand feet; that the people 
of Washington, who are compelled by law to pay two dollars 
and twenty-five cents, less discount for prompt payment, pay 
twice the price charged in London ; that the Commissioners 
had agreed to and were on the point of signing a contract 
to pay twenty-eight dollars a year for each of the 4,233 lamp- 



OF FOUR'AND'A-HALF STREET. 79 

posts in the District, when the House committee interfered 
and compelled a redaction to twenty-five dollars. These 
facts aroused the indignation of Mr. Klotz, a clear-headed 
Pennsylvanian, who lives at Mauch-Chunk, in the heart of 
the coal region, and knows the cost of gas. In the debate 
referred to Mr. Klotz exclaimed: 

" It would seem as if Congress, in legislating for this District, had but two 
objects in view — to protect the Gas Company, and then to protect all other 
people in this city who are seeking to carry out private arrangements for the 
purpose of filling their pockets." [Record, No. 28, p. 14.) 

Does any one wish to know why the Commissioners favor 
the Gaslight Company — why no inquiry is made as to the 
cost of gas, wh}' such a heavy price for it is forced by law 
on the people of this District ? Let him obtain a copy of 
the Post of February 20, 1881, and study the list of stock- 
holders in that monopoly. After reading the names he will 
need no comment from me. 



IX. 

Delinquent Taxes. 

Grievous injustice has been done to the punctual tax- 
paj^ers by the remission to certain individuals of arrears of 
taxes due from them. In one case the arrears of taxes upon 
an estate confiscated for rebellion were wholly released, a 
bill having been worked through Congress for the purpose. 
In another there was not only a release of all arrears, but 
an exemption from taxation for a certain period. 

What possible excuse can be ofl:ered for the indulgence 
from year to year shown by our rulers to delinquent tax- 
payers? The aggregate of the arrears of this indebtedness 
to the District was reported, December, 1880, by the Com- 
missioners, to be $1,194,283.06. This was after Congress 
had passed repeated laws, at the instance of the Commis- 
sioners, for the release of penalties and the reduction of 
interest to six per cent. This large amount was due to the 
District chiefly by the friends of the clique in power. Not 
only have the Commissioners for years neglected to demand 
stringent laws to compel the payment of this large amount, 
but they have gone to the other extreme. In their last 
report they had the incredible audacity to ask authority 



80 THE TRIUMVIRS 

from Congress to inquire into these unpaid taxes "and to 
settle them on their merits." If Congress had been weak 
enough to comply, the million and more due the District 
would have almost disappeared, no doubt, after the manner 
of the Linthicum assessment. 



2:. 

Schemes for Taxing Labor and Letting Capital Go Free. 

While the ruling class in the District has been unwilling 
to pay assessments upon their horse-car companies or taxes 
upon their personal or real estate, they have been extremely 
active in their attempts to saddle a large portion of District 
taxation upon the laboring classes and persons practicing 
some industry for a livelihood. Their attempts to have 
Congress pass a license occupation tax law have been unre- 
mitting for six or seven years past. In the winter of 1875- 
'76 the draft of such a bill was presented to the House com- 
mittee of Congress by Messrs. John T. Given, George W. 
Eiggs, John W. Thompson, James L. Barbour, R. T. Mer- 
rick and others. Any one who will take the trouble to ex- 
amine the bill in question will find that it is a most elabo- 
rate act in thirty-eight sections, which ought to bear the 
title : "An act to force the poor people in this District to 
pay the expenses of the local government." The character 
of the bill was so apparent that it was easily defeated. 

These gentlemen, however, did not desist from their ef- 
forts. A volunteer committee, consisting of some twelve or 
fifteen of their more active young men, Mr. John A. Baker, 
president, sat in perpetuity for the purpose of digesting and 
carrying their favorite measure. On the 11th of December, 
1879, General Hunton, at the request of this committee, in- 
troduced into the House, Bill No. 2792, to regulate taxes and 
the imposition of licenses in the District. This bill was in 
ninety-eight sections, and provided for the taxation of every 
occupation carried on in the District. Before any man 
could engage in any business mentioned in the law he was 
obliged to pay a tax ranging from ten to several hundred 
dollars. If he failed to do this, he was to be arrested, taken 
to the police court, and sentenced to the workhouse until he 
paid a fine equal to the license and five dollars more. If he 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 81 

appealed and judgment was rendered against him, " the court 
shall sentence him to pay the fine provided for by law, and 
in default in payment thereof to be confined in the District 
jail or workhouse for a period of not less than seven (days,) 
uor more than six months.'' 

Is it credible that the clique which permits the president 
of a street-car company who refuses to pay his assessment to 
go entirely free, could think of nothing but arrest, the work- 
house and the jail for the punishment of a butcher, a shoe- 
maker, or a cart-driver who had not paid his tax ? 

A more monstrous bill, if such a thing is possible, is the 
one presented in the House by the same clique January 26, 
1880, through Mr. Townshend. It is Bill No. 3889. Its title 
is " To create a board of assessment and taxation for the 
District of Columbia." It empowered the Commissioners 
to appoint twenty-one real estate owners, who should be a 
board, with power to assess real estate and impose a tax on 
trades, occupations and corporations, by license or otherwise. 
In short, this board was to have entire control of the whole 
business of taxation in this district. There was no provision 
for either oath or bond. If this bill had been passed the 
property and business of every resident of this district would 
have been at the mercy of an irresponsible board. It had 
taken about six years for this committee of self-called " re- 
presentative citizens" to incubate upon this monster. Of 
course it was killed in the House. 



XI. 

Politics. 

Under the late Administration the Republicans expected 
little and got nothing in the District government. I think 
they had a right to expect that Republicans should not be 
dismissed to make room for Democrats, especially when the 
former were competent and the latter were not; that it 
should not be made a point to oiFset the nine ex-Union offi- 
cers and privates in the employ of the District with nine 
rebel army and navy men, including a commodore ; or to 
dismiss Republicans and appoint Democrats until the parties 
were equally represented in the offices. I have a list of 
these removals and appointments, with the politics of each 



82 THE TRIUMVIRS 

incumbent as nearly designated as is practicable. Eppa 
Hunton's squad of Virginians, Mr. Dent's squad, including 
a relative, and Mr. Morgan's squad, including his son, (lately 
appointed in the fire department,) are credited to the Dem- 
ocrats, perhaps erroneously in some cases. The fire board 
and the school board are largely of the same party. At 
some other time I may take up this subject more in detail; 
it is not necessary for my purpose now. 

As we have no voting in the District we ought, perhaps, to 
have no politics in the District government ; but our Com- 
missioners are necessarily brought into frequent intercourse 
with the President and the Cabinet, and it would seem 
reasonable that they should be in sympathy with the Na- 
tional Administration, of whatever party that may be. Nor 
does sharing control and dividing responsibility appear to 
help the other party much. You, Mr. Editor, are a Demo- 
crat. What, pray, could your party gain by having Com- 
missioners chosen from its ranks? What has it gained? 
You have had Messrs. Dent and Morgan. What good have 
they done your party ? It is true they have dismissed a 
good many Republican subordinates and appointed Demo- 
crats to the vacancies. This has ruined some individuals 
and benefitted others ; but it has not helped your party, and 
it has increased the expenses of the District and lowered 
the standard of competency among the officials. 

Will you deny that Messrs. Dent and Morgan are Demo- 
crats ? I will not affirm that they are, but I do affirm that 
they are as good as any you can find in this District. Twenty 
years ago there were a great many stiff Democrats in 
Washington and Georgetown ; but Republican ascendancy 
seems to have taken the starch out of all who are unburied. 
In politics they are Dugald Dalgettys, fighting for whichever 
side pays best. Generally neither side wants them. In 
political campaigns they give lazy good wishes to the De- 
mocracy, but little or no money; and if they give they 
always hedge by giving an equal sum to the Republicans. 
They have, however, retained the narrow prejudices of the 
provincial Virginian. In their views of education they have 
not kept up with the Northern Democracy, being at least 
half a century behind such Democrats as Mr. Cobb, of In- 
diana. They are always ready, however, to pay court to 
the succcessfal candidate for the Presidency. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 83 

At inauguration times and balls, whether in honor of 
Grant, Hayes or Garfield, they assume control and jostle 
Republicans out of the way. They would have been equally 
demonstrative for McClellan, Tilden or Hancock. What 
use can your party have for such supple-jacks? 

»» God bless the Rebels !" cried the traitor clan. 

"God bless the Union!" shout they to a man. 

'» God bless great Grant, and General Garfield, too ! 

♦' God bless our Arthur, to the country true!'' 
And in the White House, should Old Nick revel 
As President, they'd cry, "God bless the Devil!" 



XII. 

With this chapter I leave the Commissioners for the pres- 
ent to public opinion and the President. Your readers will 
bear me witness that I have not abused the privilege of the 
press; I have not meddled with the private life of either 
Commissioner. They are public men, and as such I have 
arraigned them. 

Nor am I an anonymous accuser: I have not entered 
Columbia Building as -<^neas entered Dido's palace — envel- 
oped in a cloud. Though I write over an initial my full 
name is no secret — the Commissioners have known it from 
the first number. 

To give voice to the complaints made for months and 
years by thoughtful and observant citizens was somebody's 
duty. Why not mine? If any one is impartial I am? 
The Commissioners have never wronged me personally. I 
have nothing to avenge. Their office I would not accept. 
I have nothing to gain. And I propose no candidate. I am 
the advocate of fair play in local politics — that is all. 

If it be said that I have expressed myself sharply, I admit 
and justify. When the Hebrew prophet was asked, ''Doest 
thou well to be angry?" he answered, "I do well." The 
abuses, wrongs, carelessness, corruption and stupidity borne 
long by a patient public had excited in me a lively indigna- 
tion. Musing upon these things the fire burned, and neces- 
sity was on me to write. 

I have stated the facts fairly. Every one has been proved 
by official reports, letters signed by the culprits, speeches 



84 THE TRIUMVIRS 

made in Congress, court records, official estimates, or sworn 
testimony of Mr. Dent or others. I have used demonstra- 
tions, not scandal. If I had colored any fact too highly 
Messrs. Dent and Morgan would have contradicted; if I 
had invented any they would have had me impaled in the 
daily press. Their guilty consciousness has made them sub- 
mit to punishment. They know that I am thoroughly 
versed in the facts, and are afraid to take issue with me on 
a single material point. They are satisfied with denouncing 
me as a malicious person and mischief-maker. 

My chapter on the favoritism to the railroad companies 
was, however, more than they could bear. Afraid to contra- 
dict me directly, or anybody over their own signatures, they 
authorize the Star reporter to contradict the statements in the 
slightly inaccurate form in which they appeared in the New 
York Herald. In regard to the deficiency discovered last 
week in the accounts of the Tax Collector's cashier the Her- 
ald said : 

•' The wonder is that it is not $500,000. The management of the finances of 
the District of Columbia would be a disgrace even to the cashier of a Newark 
bank. It is a notorious fact that steam railroad corporations, street railway 
companies and other influential combinations have not paid a cent of tax to the 
District, and even prominent individuals openly evade the tax law. The slight 
alleged deficiency is supposed to be due to the error of the examining clerks, 
and the actual shortage, which, as the Commissioners have been aware of for 
months, is said to be between $400,000 and $500,000." 

The reporter for the Star says of the above : 

" The attention of the District Commissioners was called to this statement 
to-day, and they pronounced it an outrageous libel, without a particle of foun- 
dation. The taxes were never so closely collected as now, they say, as shown 
by the comparative statements of different years. The railroad companies are 
paying all their general taxes. Some cases of special taxes are in litigation, 
the Commissioners having sued the companies for the dues." 

The JTerfl'W writer has used the word "tax" instead of "spe- 
cial assessment," and the word "shortage" to cover all losses 
from incompetency and favoritism. Barring these inaccur- 
acies, he is correct, as I have shown in a previous chapter. 

In their denial, (which they don't sign and may repu- 
diate,) the Commissioners do not really deny my charges; 
they evade them. I charged and proved that a certain 
" prominent individual " had evaded seven-eighths of his 
special assessment. Mr. Dent does not deny that. I charged 
and proved that Mr. Thompson's street-car company, and 



OF FOUR- AND- A'HALF STREET. 85 

Mr. Willard's, and the "Washington and Georgetown, had. 
not for years paid a cent of their special assessment; that 
Mr. Willard's company had not heen sued at all ; that the 
two others had each been sued for a less sum, by many 
thousand dollars, than the Commissioners' books show to 
be due ; and that the legal interest had been lost on alt 
these assessments by the neglect to issue lien certificates. 
The Commissiohers deny none of these things, except by a 
faint implication. By evading they confess. I proved last 
week that what the Herald calls "shortage" amounts to 
several hundred thousand dollars. If my statements were 
" an outrageous libel " the courts are open.* 

Another Shortage. 

While on the subject I make another charge. It is dili- 
nite : Will the Commissioners deny it? 

The law of May 21, 1872, (17th Stat, at Large, page 140,) 
granting to the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company 
its present valuable depot site on Sixth street, near Penn- 
sylvania avenue, provides: "And the said property so oc- 
cupied by said company, together with the improvements 
which may be put thereon, shall be subject to tax by the 
District of Columbia, and to be used exclusively for the 
support of the public schools in said District." 

The tax, if fairlj' assessed, must amount to about $7,000 
yearly. The law was passed nine years ago. I charge that 
since Messrs. Dent and Morcran have been in office not one 



*By way of defense to my charges of favoritism to the street railway companies, the Coramis- 
Bioners have published a statement of Attorney Riddle's, dated October 31, 1881, in relation ta 
the claims of the District against those companies. That this document falls far short of a de- 
fense will be seen on comparing it with the charges, one by one. 

First Charge. That the Metropolitan, Washington and Georgetown and Columbia CompanieB 
each owe a large amount to the District for paving their tracks. Mr. Riddle admits this. 

Second Charge. That the Commissioners have never issued a lien certificate for such claims, 
or any of them. Mr. Riddle admits this, but pleads that before June 11, 1878, they had no legal 
right to issue such certificate. Then my charge is sustained for the three years and five months 
since June 11, '78. 

Third Charge. That the Commissioners did not sue the two former companies until Xovem-- 
ber, 1880, when a large part of the claim had been barred by statute. Mr. Riddle admits. 

Fourth Charge. That when they did sue, it was not for the amount shown by their own books 
to be due, but for a great many thousand dollars less. Mr. Itiddle does not deny this. 

Fifth Charge. That the two suits did not include any interest. Mr. R. does not deny this. 

Sixth Charge. That the Commissioners did not sue the Columbia Company (Mr. Willard's) at 
all. Mr. R. says they did, and that the suit is pending in the General Term. 1 now repeat the 
charge, after having caused a careful examination of the calendar of the General Term. If any 
lawyer can find such a case on that calendar, or if Mr. Riddle will write me that it is there, I 
will acknowledge my error. I do not suspect Mr. E. of bad faith, but of carelessness in making 
his statement cover the three companies instead of two only. ' 



86 THE TRIUMVIRS 

dollar of that tax has been applied to the support of the 

public schools. Answer, gentlemen, yes or no; be plain 

for once. 

Shuffling Answers, the Rule. 

Last week, for the first time in their administration,* 
the Commissioners had the tax collector's books examined. 
They ought to have been examined daily. Defalcation 
should have been made impossible for more than twenty- 
four hours. Millions had been collected. Thanks to the 
honesty of the collector and the moderation of his cashier, 
the deficit was no more than six thousand dollars. It might 
have been half a million, and existed for a year; the Com- 
missioners would never have known it. What the commu- 
nity wanted to know was : Why have the Commissioners 
never had the collector's accounts overhauled ? The joyous 
answer of the Commissioners was: "The District does not 
lose a cent!!" This is lucky. The proverb says, "God 
takes care of children, fools and drunken men." Add the 
JDistrict to the number of uufortunates who have no guar- 
dian but Providence ! 

Everybody remembers the " missing coupons." More than 
;$13,500 in coupons were deposited in 1874 with the board 
of audit, and, it is supposed, were handed over with all other 
papers of that board to the Commissioners. Messrs. Dent 
and Morgan never knew, or thought it was their business to 
know, whether there were any valuable papers there or not. 
Their first knowledge on the subject was last spring, when 
a subordinate told them the coupons were missing. What 
the people wanted to know was the excuse of the Commis- 
sioners for not knowing for years of the existence of the 
coupons. What Messrs. Dent and Morgan answered was, 
" The District does not lose a cent." They added that the 
board of audit had lost the coupons, a matter of which they 
knew nothing. 

This trick of saddling the blame on somebody else is a 
favorite one with Mr. Dent. For faults in the revision of 
assessments, he blamed Major Twining; for the remission of 
the Linthicum estate assessment, both his colleagues ; and 
for the " old brewery" case, the school trustees. Wouldn't 
it be more manly, Mr. Dent, to avow a fault once in a while? 

*It is rumored that the Commissioners have never caused Mr. Eatwisle's accounts to be 
audited. 



OF FOUR-AND-A-HALF STREET. 87 

Advice Unasked. 

If the Commissioners would listen to me I would speak 
to them as follows : 

Gentlemen, you made a mistake in taking public office. 
Nature did not lit you for it ; she gave you neither business 
nor other qualities that command the respect of men. You 
are of those persons who escape blame only when they es- 
cape notice. Nor did experience in municipal administra- 
tion fit you for office. You rushed in where abler men 
feared to tread. It would have been wiser for you to have 
aspired to the vacant professorships at the astronomical ob- 
servatory. President Hayes would probably have appointed 
you if a rich banker had asked hira ; and your failure, if as. 
signal, would not have been so widely known or injurious^ 

Since you have been in office you have drifted helplessly;, 
you have had no plan ; you have matured no good measure ; 
you have not known what was being done around you ia 
the affiiirs supposed to be under your control ; coupons, by 
thousands, have disappeared ; millions of taxes have beea 
collected without an audit; and, at a time when you had. 
$419,000 in the Treasury to your credit, you thought yoa 
were without a dollar, and so told the chairman of the sub- 
Committee on Appropriations ! To your enemies you have; 
been objects of derision; to your friends, of pity. 

As the price of office, you have represented ignorance ia 
its war on intelligence, vice in its war on morality. Against 
the public schools you have done what you could ; attempted 
to defeat the erection of primary-school and high-school 
buildings; interfered with building plans; hindered the 
completion of buildings; delayed for months putting furni- 
ture in the school rooms, and attempted to build a nasty 
station-house for swearing prostitutes and drunkards under 
the windows of the high-school building, the erection of 
which you had failed to defeat. You have authorized none 
but the slenderest salaries to teachers, and have cut dov 
the estimates so that the salaries are not paid in full, 
have begrudged every cent spent for philosophical a- 
tus; and, in three years, your expenditures on this ' 
the boys' high-school amounts to the immense s 
dollars ! And this while you have connived a* 
the schools of what is given them by statute, 
fines collected on judgments of the Crir 
the annual taxes of several thousand d'^ 



88 THE TRIUMVIR, l"lini 

014 310 378 P 

able, by the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Company. 
You have made membership of the Democratic party a 
qualilication for the nmjority of the members of the 
school board, ignoring tae hundreds of Republicans dis- 
tinguished for their intelligent zeal for education; and you 
have so stripped the Board itself of power that it cannot 
order the repair of a broken window pane without your 
permit through some of your bureaus at Columbia Building. 

While you don't want schools at the National Capital, you 
do want groggeries. You have established these on nearly 
every square. Every citizen has one close by his house for 
the particular benefit of his children and servants. The 
rills of adulterated whisky trickle in every drug store ; our 
;groceries smell of it; wholesale liquor houses line our ave- 
nues, and the clink of glasses is heard in scores of beer gar- 
dens on the principal streets, and once a year you ride in a 
carriage at the head of a half-mile long procession of liquor 
barrels and hogsheads ! Washington has 168,000 inhabi- 
tants and, counting tippling saloons, licensed and unlicensed, 
wholesale stores, breweries, beer gardens, grocery stores and 
apothecary shops, 1,000 drinking establishments ! One to 
every 168 men, women and children ! And one of you 
spends much of his time in devising evasions of the license 
law for the further increase of the number of tippling 
places ! One of his brilliant discoveries is that the United 
States does not own the Interior or Post-Office, or Treasury 
Building, and that, therefore, he, said Commissioner, can 
license saloons opposite them without asking the consent of 
the owner, as required by law. 

You are in a most unhappy condition. You cannot please 

your supporters without violating the law, or displease them 

without losing your office. 

X Will you pretend to President Arthur that you are Re- 

lublicans ? That might do for Mr. Hayes, who was rather 

nxious to be imposed upon in that matter; but will it do 

the present Executive, who needs no one to remind him 

official zeal which begins in hypocrisy must end in 

•^ reports ready, gentlemen ; send in your resigna- 

've your places to men representing the intelli- 

^ patriotic part of the community. And so, 

H. 



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